Sunday, July 23, 2017

Cycling = solace

Je trouve la réconfort sur le vélo (I always find solace on the bike)...it's funny, it dawned on me while riding today that some 30 years ago (ya, don't even get me started that I can start a sentence with "some 30 years ago") around this time I got my first "real" bike. It was a Giant RS940 in neon pink (what?! It was the 80s!) and I went from being the kid that barely held on with the local club rides (I was riding my dad's 70's era commuter Peugeot) to the kid that was always off the front and a club racer. With dreams of being the next Laurent Fignon or Greg LeMond, I'd log hundreds of miles a week...just me and my bike. I discovered the joy and the freedom the bicycle can give. It's always been a calming effect in my life. No matter how bad things get, if I can get wheels on the road and go ride, life just seems so much more dealable.

I've been fighting through health issues for a while now. They've taken a toll on me physically and even more importantly mentally. Another doc, another potential fix...we'll see. But, I get on the bike and forget all about it. It's funny, the Army taught me to run, triathlon made me learn to swim...but if I had a nickel for every time during a run race or in the water I've said to myself "if I can just get through this, I'm never gonna do this again" I'd be RICH...but I've never said that on the bike. I run, I swim, I lift but I AM a cyclist. That 25 miles Today didn't make everything go away, but it certainly made things a little better.

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