the tao of cycling: 4.5 miles

Monday, December 7, 2009

4.5 miles

there is snow on the road, and the wind has been whipping frozen particles from north to south, chilling me to the bone. what was a beautiful white carpet yesterday is now lumped in hollows and corners and scraped so diligently from my lawn that you might think I had asked someone to shovel the whiteness from my grass.
I saw not a single commuter-by-bike this morning on my way home from power camp, for which I felt great relief.
this is not good biking weather.

it hit me today that it might not be easy to get myself on a real bike these next couple weeks. the forecasts show clouds and snowflakes and temperatures that are good ages for college students. these are not the conditions in which I like to ride.
and see, I have to get out for at least a brief ride sometime in the next 24 days, so that I may end 2009 with a nice, cheery, round mileage number.
the day after thanksgiving brought me close to my milestone, but by the end of that ride I was so tired and cold that I had absolutely no desire to ride another 4.5 miles and hit it. a mere skip across the parking lot in contrast to the Big Annual Number, but there was just no way I wanted to do it. hey, I knew there would be plenty more opportunities to get out before the end of the year.

so I passed on the next day that offered upper thirties and partly cloudy skies.
and the one after that.
and even the one following that.
and now I find myself here: staring out the window at the sinisterly slick roads and the air that's so cold I can see minuscule ice crystals in their processes of formation. my nasal passages hurt just looking out there, and goose bumps run across my body at the thought of actually being out there.

I have 24 days left.
to ride 4.5 miles.
outside.
on dry pavement, under sunny skies and in (oh please) 40 degree air.
this is my present request this holiday season, just one beautiful day so I may complete my goal.
I think this is a reasonable request, which I will now convey to the weather gods above.

and you can place your own little vote on whether or not I will let the weather keep me from reaching that goal.
ha.
if only you could see my self-deprecating smirk.
sigh.
yep, we all know me all too well.

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the Male Ego

The other day I was coming down a canyon in my drop bars (two years ago I would have said, 'what's a drop bar?'), working hard, when I came up on two guys who were also heading downhill but at a more leisurely pace. I passed them, said hello as I did so, and pulled back into the bike lane. a few minutes later they went flying past me, faces looking dead ahead, not a single bit of acknowledgment that I even existed on this planet let alone was involved in and enjoying the same sport they were.
I have to attribute this to the male ego. what else can it be? now I know we all have egos, myself included. and mine even shows its ridiculous little head once in a while, or perhaps more often. but the difference between mine and say, those of certain men on bicycles, is that I KNOW mine exists and I can LAUGH at mine. I know my ego was quite excited to pass those guys, and I could also smile because I knew if the men had really been working like I was, they would have kicked my butt down the hill.
I think I pissed them off.
and I'm sure I will be sharing with you much more of my thoughts about the male ego . . .

a little history

I was married, and I had a mountain bike which I rarely rode. we separated, I moved out, and four months later someone stole my bike. the next spring, 2005, I bought myself a new mountain bike. I rode occasionally, and in april 2006 I rode in my first century, the Cactus Hugger in St. George, Utah. I made it 54 miles on that mountain bike, and it took me about 6 hours. I think that included the rest stops where I prayed that someone would steal my bike again . . .
in june 2006 I started riding my mountain bike five mornings a week, a 45-55 minute loop that was intended to be all about exercise. and what I found was that I loved the quiet, peaceful morning full of bird chatter and barely breaking sunrises. by that fall I was hooked, and began considering the purchase of a road bike. I rode up emigration canyon for the first time that Labor Day of 2006, panting and plowing along on my trusty (heavy) bike, and a month later I was the proud owner of my own road bike: I had become a two-bike girl!
a 17-week-long "power camp" over the winter and a handful of new friends kept bicycling front and center in my life, and when spring of 2007 rolled around I was ready to hit the pavement. I rode my first century the end of april, when I again went to St. George and completed that Cactus Hugger. it took me about 7 hours, but this time I rode the entire 100 miles with about 9300 feet of vertical gain. woo hoo!
I started riding canyons around our area, emigration and millcreek, city creek, big cottonwood, little mountain and big mountain, and once--yes, only once--little cottonwood.
then in september of 2007, I rode from Logan, Utah, to Jackson, Wyoming, in the slightly infamous LOTOJA race. I rode, I did not race. and I completed the thing, crediting my good training buddies, the incredibly perfect weather, my support team, and an amazing convergence of all things positive in the universe.
I put in about 3500 miles last season, and as of today, july 19, 2008, I have about 1700 in, adding to it every day.
I have again signed on to ride the LOTOJA race, and my goal is to have just somewhere near as great a ride as I did last year. oh, and to have someone fun to talk with along the way as I got incredibly bored last year . . . star valley is still a nightmare scene in my biking memories . . .
and here is a picture of the machine that has helped me reclaim my life.