I rode a bike.

 

Now that shouldn't be such a radical statement for a blog written by a formerly retired former pro mountain bike racer.  People like myself are supposed to ride bikes.  It's kinda what we do.  Heck I even had the absurd good fortune that a few people were willing to pay me to do it, but when you get right down to it, I rather like riding a bike for its own sake.  And yet, a little over two months ago, riding a bike turned into flying through the air after some launch assistance from the front end of motorist's car, and today was my first ride again after that failed attempt at unwinged flight.  Heck, I just want to say it again: I RODE A BIKE!

In the fall of 2007, roughly a year after my first stab at ending my racing, I traveled to New Zealand, that island nation way, way, way over there.  If you've never been, but you like going outside, trust me, it's well worth the trip.  I was there for just about a month, and in that time, I rode a bike a grand total of never.  For someone who had recently finished 17 years building and completing a a career on a bike, that time off was pretty phenomenal.  I often refer to it as my body's reset.  Riding a bike is pretty darn awesome, but human beings haven't quite had enough time to evolve into the form.  Sure, bikes are made for people, but if you look back through our ancestry, it is hard to find much to support the idea that there was a survival and procreation advantage to legs moving in an ordained circle.  So, see, the body doesn't mind a rest and reset from the bike every now and again.

That said, I don't think I can call what happened to my body over the last two months a rest.  As for reset, that was mostly the entirely wrong meaning of the word, as in my bones re-setting into one piece.  Still, when I rode today, I couldn't believe that my legs had been off a bike for just over two months, without a circle to be seen.  Still, I've had a good (might even say it was great) month of progressively longer hikes, which while not riding, certainly exercise the legs, and those jaunts were well in excess of my under two hour jaunt today, and it seems that over thirty years of riding a bike in a consistent fashion takes more than two months to shake out of a body.  Today felt like riding a bike, and to me, that means something truly special.  In a large way, it meant today just felt right.

Oh, and where did I go?  I rode for what I like to think of as one of the most noble pursuits on a bike.  I rode for the sheer joy, yes, but also, I rode for function.  I rode to the grocery store.  If you haven't picked up that habit yet and are still stuck using a car to feed yourself, give the bike a try.  You might even find you love it.  Plus, it can make your body something even better than fast: durable.  If that ride also helps avoid damaging this planet we need to survive, or even (shudder) the body of another person, well, that's a pretty damn big plus as well.  Let's do this; let's ride bikes!