2.11.2011 Ride: My Life As a Bike

I was trying to explain to Rachel, our 17 year-old daughter, who is worldly, intelligent, keeps up with current events and evens reads the Economist magazine (yes, you read that correctly), that my daily ride has turned into more than a resolution of sorts where I just try to accomplish the same task day after day.  The Daily Ride has become a philosophical way of being and seeing the world.  "I have had to become highly disciplined, not so much to accomplish riding everyday but to accomplish all the other sundry tasks of the day," I said to her.   I paused and waited, thinking I was connecting on some level.  "I feel like a Samurai warrior in some ways," I added.  "Oh, so that means if you don't ride one day you'll commit hara-kiri?" she quickly asked, followed with a big chuckle.  "No.  I'm talking about the discipline part," I said.  But, I knew it was too late.  I could have chosen any of the other various Eastern philosophical arts but I had recently happened to watch a Samurai movie and the discipline in the training, the way of life, the honor and protector of the community struck a chord with me. So, Samurai it was, is.  Not that I envision myself with a sword strapped to my back as I bike ride gloriously into battle.

Riding every day has indeed become a journey. A thread connects these daily rides and connected to the thread are all the other elements of my life.  Rather than viewing each day separately, linearly, there is a roundness to the view, three dimensional, spherical as if viewing the Earth from space and seeing the wholeness of the entire planet rather than the view from the one spot I may happen to be standing on.  Yes, all this, just from deciding to ride every day.  Though, I think, if it would be more helpful, Rachel could probably explain it for you in economic terms.

Simple Pleasure from Yesterday's Ride

A couple of times during the ride when it was still dark, a very fine cloud of snow dust reflected in my bike light. At first, I thought it was lightly snowing but looking up in the sky it was perfectly clear.  Looking around me, I saw no trace of the snow dust and could only detect it in the bike light.  This only added to the sense I had yesterday of being on another world, a place with little gravity where the dust floated almost imperceptibly in the air for days and days and I needed a special instrument to detect it. A moment later, a truck drove by and the source of the dust was revealed as another cloud of the very fine snow dust was stirred up. 

Woke up at 5:00 AM and saw the temperature was 13, a far cry from the -9 predicted in the forecast.  With a busy day looming in the latter part of the day, I decided to set out just before sunrise when the temp was still 14 instead of trying to squeeze in a ride latter in the day when it would be a balmy 29.  That's all right.  I enjoy riding at sunrise. 

Today's Ride:  60 mins.  7 miles.  14-17 degrees.  Miles YTD: 717.56

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