Group Ride

"They don't call it a group ride for nothing!"

-Jay Thompson

That is my cycling quote of the season so far. It was a week of great group rides and I know that I am biased but I love our group. Evan brought me a deraillier today and I threw it on this afternoon and it works like a charm. That is our group! We are so there for each other. Maybe all groups are like that but man I love this group. We had 18 riders today... 20 has been my goal, we are right there.


85 miles, very easy but I was not ready to get off the bike at all... I feel great right now! Just riding outside is enough!

Bike love installment 3:

The People- The culture that surrounds cycling is the most enthusiastic and optimistic group I have ever met. I have become fast friends with all the guys and gals that I ride with. We are immediately drawn to each other. It is not simply that we pull each other through the wind, it is a common interest in an area where the endorphins are clicking and where the more positive energy the merrier! Heft on Wheels is a book written by a person that discovers the bike culture and all that it offers those who join it. Rather than focusing on what's wrong it is a group that focuses on what is right. A group that is made up of every socioeconomic group and everyone is equal. Everyone truly cares and there is a togetherness that is hard to find anywhere else.

Fitness- Fitness becomes natural. Once your riding you can’t help it. And if you set up your own personal time trial course it could change the way you live your life completely. It is that powerful. Lighter and stronger are the keys.

Priorities- Fitness leads into priorities. One risk you run is that cycling can become an addiction like anything else. Cycling also can straighten things out. It gives you the time you need to think about what you or your family need and it has a natural calming element that allows you to think about what you need and not what the culture is telling you you need. Time trailing is a part of this. There is nothing like racing yourself because you can see the growth and you can monitor your riding, running or swimming. Beat your time; it will change the way you sleep, eat, drink, and live your life. Get started! Run around your house and time it... then try to beat it tomorrow!

Nature- You see a lot of different things on a ride at a pace that you can soak up so much that you would miss in a car. You can do this in running too but you get so much farther on a bike. You will really learn about an area on a bike. Mark Twain once commented you can always tell if it is hilly when you are on a bike. By riding you are silent like nature, at one with nature. I ride through our park in the drizzle and I feel like I could be 100 miles away. It makes you want to save every parkway and park we have simply to experience the healing power of nature.

Endurance- Endurance not just for the ride but for life. Health clubs have mastered diet and exercise for an hour cycling teaches it to you for a day, two days, or a week. Nutrition is completely different than the health club model. Diet on a bike is eat and keep eating. You are out there too long to not keep the supply up!
It also is endurance for life. Things get rough and because you live the living metaphor of cycling you know you will get through it and that you need to power on.

Love/Respect- At the height of the endorphin high you could love anyone and have respect for everyone. You don’t have to agree with them but you can respect them probably because you respect yourself. And that is it I guess, it took a long way to get here but maybe we have the problems we do because we don’t respect ourselves. Thousands of people living vicariously through their children to do what they couldn’t or what they did and can’t anymore. You can ride well into your 70’s and some make it well into their 80’s. Have we lost our sense of accomplishment and in not loving ourselves we can’t love anyone. Your kids want you to get a life, not live vicariously through theirs. We don’t believe in ourselves so we yell at coaches and refs or our neighbors. I think everyone should get there heart rate over 140 everyday simply to get to understand that we don’t have to sweat the small stuff and that we are all in this together.

Suffering- Our culture struggles with a sensation of entitlement. We seem to think that we are entitled to many things and when it doesn’t work out our way we tend to blame and complain. We need a cleanser and that cleanser is suffering. It is good to put your self in a place of hardship once in a while to understand that you can make it through tough times or bad breaks. Facing challenge brings out the wonder of life. You know that you are living and you celebrate the wonderful things you do have with a whole new sense of gratitude. We have so much and it seems like our culture wants to focus on what we don’t have rather than all the wonder we do have.