Time spent on my bike

The alarm wakes me up whether I am ready to or not. That’s just how time works. I sip a cup of coffee, in hopes that it will warm my insides and wake me up before it’s time to start pedalling. Eventually it was, and I had to go meet my riding partner for the day of mountainous terrain despite creeping thoughts of doubt.

I was nervous. After an hour of riding, we were dropping down a steep, twisty descent. The descent was fast, faster than I was comfortable with. The crisp, morning mountain air made my fingers numb. The disc brakes underneath me made me feel more secure.

Tick, tick, tick. Riding a bike is a repetitive pursuit. The miles tick by, time ticks by, and you tick your way up the sides of mountains. When your legs tick away, spinning in circles, you can lose sense of time. Gaining most of our elevation for the 60 mile ride in the Santa Cruz Mountains over 20 miles gave me this feeling.

An inescapable truth of time is that the Earth changes with it. The January riding in California was perfect, but in Colorado it was a different story. The winter raged on, my bike sat idle, and with time the seasons changed to Spring.

After a small rise in the road, another road forks off to the left. The road quickly turns to gravel after I make the left hand turn. It’s a slightly bumpy ride but a fun one. There is still snow on the ground, but the road surface is mostly clear. Occasionally, mud and ice make pedalling a laborious affair. The warming temperatures and dwindling snowpack were a sign of the times.

Athletes are hyper focused on time. That’s how I used to be. Ride for this amount of hours. Ride hard for this amount of minutes. Count the seconds in between efforts. This has changed over time.

Enjoy the tick, tick, tick of the miles. Feel the changing rhythm of the tick as the road rises and falls. The sun moves through the sky, transitioning from day to night. The shade below a ridge provides sweet relief from the hot day.

Bike riding warps time and that’s why I do it, to forget about current times and enter into a world of my own as my mind drifts. Time on the bike is the important part, so spend a little time on the bike each day, or a lot if you want to.