the tao of cycling: 57 and sunny

Sunday, February 13, 2011

57 and sunny

so where do you think you could find me?
yep, up my favorite little canyon, along with a few dozen other cycling enthusiasts who weren't afraid of a little downhill chill and rooster tails from the melting snow wetting the roads.

the sky is nothing but blue, snow still covers most of the hillsides and lies thick in shaded, south-side bike lanes, and it is a gloriously perfect day for cycling.

which makes more than a few of us choose between have-to's and wanna's.
yesterday's weather was almost as nice, and instead of riding outside I chose to focus on some of my have-to's. I dusted and vacuumed, mopped floors and did laundry. I worked on paperwork (can we talk about having a child applying to colleges, and the resulting mountain of paperwork that descends on his parent who applies for financial aid?), and was partially present for a teenage daughter who---with eight friends---was primping and prepping for a high school dance.

today, I was focused on fitting in my wanna.

this time of year, if you really love to ride your bike, you have to be prepared at any time to leap on it when the sky clears and the sun pours down.
I'll do laundry later.
I know I can get that application completed by the end of the day.
there's enough food in the fridge, I can put off going to the store until tomorrow.
I'll get the sheets changed/ironing done/work handled/gas in the car after I get back.
because this kind of perfect riding weather is only here for a short while, and then we'll be back to snow and rain and cold.

do I feel guilty sometimes?
sure.
but I also know that I'm a better, healthier, happier person when I get to do what I love.
not always, not all the time, not at the expense of crucial, important, immovable things.
but when we learn to fuel ourselves with what fills our hearts with joy and our minds with bliss, we are then better able to pass that along to those around us, those we care for, those we work and interact with.

today was a day to soak in joy and bliss. and the forecast for the week gives me a few more warm (though windy) days before . . . yep . . . the snow returns. so, perhaps I'll take what I can get, and postpone the postponable until thursday.
sounds good to me.

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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.