Where are you going?
When on the bike, do you prefer point-to-point rides? Loops? A GPS and pre-loaded maps? Whatever the road serves up? The trainer with a DVD and power meter?
After watching Bicycle Dreams a second time this week, I can’t get a quote out of my head. I don’t know if it’s 100 percent accurate, but it’s worth repeating: “Endurance athletes are running away from something inside of themselves, and that’s one of the reasons they do what they do.” When attributed to a younger Lance Armstrong, those words ring true. As a kid, he was fatherless, an “outsider” in a tradition-bound city that values social status and the success of your momma and daddy. No doubt, the bicycle he rode at an early and formative time of growth became a good best friend, something he could count on.
Where are you going?
I’d argue that, yes, cycling (as an endurance pursuit) can be an “escape” from many things. Certain unplesantries, come what may, and the parts of our life beyond our influence, or illusions of control. Cycling, though, isn’t that simple. Endurance athletes aren’t that easily stereotyped. It’s not so much the art of “escaping.” It’s “finding.”
To find, a cyclist first must desire or seek something. Running away isn’t the endgame, no way. The ability to practice an endurance sport (like cycling, like running, like swimming) and derive greater meaning is. Ergo: Finding new physical and mental thresholds. Reaching higher goals, the ones uncomfortably beyond your reach today. Pushing boundaries you never imagined you’d ever even consider touching. Then finally, shattering fears, both real and imagined.
Where are you going?
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