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Monday, February 27, 2006

Purification Through Suffering

Yesterday was one of those days on the bike. A reasonably stiff headwind and a temp around 30. And those lovely early season legs that can't quite do everything you really want them to do.

Actually, it all really started on Friday. I skipped out of work early and hit the river trail for a little mtb action. For those not from here, the river trails is a flat twisty ride where you can really drop the hammer when conditions are right. But on Friday the trail had some melting snow and ice, some mud, and a few spots of standing water.

But Friday afternoons on the bike don't come often so it felt great to ride with no urgent time frame where I had to be done and back home or back at a desk. So I plugged away at it for a couple hours. Sliding out. Trying not to dab. Riding the giant ice damn on the east side of 35W. Getting back to the car feeling good. Feeling alive. Banging the mud off my shoes and sliding my now mud-coated machine into the back of the van.

Friday's ride actually set up Sunday's suffering pretty well. I've been riding the trainer a lot this Winter. It's so convenient for me. Just wake up, go downstairs, and hop on and spin. The days of the trainer being equated with torture are over. I'm not sure why. It is now almost something enjoyable for me. Something to take sick pleasure in.

But Sunday, I had the go ahead pass from my wife to spend some time out on the bike. I took the road bike off the trainer, suited up and took off. Not many folks out and a headwind from the south and west.

I'm a subscriber to the thought of get the tough part over with first if you can, so that the ride back home can actually be a bit more pleasurable. So west I went, into a headwind that had me in my granny combo a few times and wondering how my heart could actually be beating so fast when I was going so slow.

But there is something beautiful about suffering slowly in a headwind in the early season. It's like taking that first honest look at yourself and seeing just what your goals need to be. What goals you are going to go out and conquer. How you are going to make yourself better. Through the dim pain of suffering you can just barely see that is possible that you are actually going to ride this same headwind later in the summer 3 gears, or maybe 4 gears, higher. How you'll feel your body growing stronger.

And to get there it takes suffering.

When I got home my lady asked me how I could stay out there in the cold riding for that long and I told her it's the only way to get better. Time on the bike. Time spent suffering. Beautifully suffering.

-Kid

Posted by Salsa Kid : 1:05 PM 0 comments | permalink