The best bicycle ride I ever took was a one way trip
The best bicycle ride I ever took was a one way trip
My father got into bicycling after one particularly unsettling annual physical. I still don’t know exactly what the doctor told him but I can imagine there was a part about lack of physical exercise and serious health problems if he didn’t change his habits. He changed quickly and bought a nice touring bicycle. I was ten at the time and he took me out riding with him for his warm up rides. We would go a couple of miles and he would drop me back off at home before he went out for his serious ride.
After a bit, he bought me a nicer bike and I began going with him on 10 and 20 mile rides. About a year later, we both rode together on BAK (Bike Across Kansas). It was a great 500 mile trip over a week. We did it a few more times together in the years to come. These are great memories I have of my dad from my childhood.
If you’ve never been to Kansas, you don’t know about wind. Actually, you may know wind but you don’t know WIND. I still don’t understand how it can push you in multiple directions at the same time but it does. Western Kansas is flat. It is really, really flat. So the wind picks up speed and really can beat you around. Do you see the life analogy yet?
So my dad and I rode 70-80 miles a day across Kansas. We even put in a few centennial (100 miles in one day) rides just for fun. And occasionally, we would get a tail wind for part of the day. Only part of the day and only occasionally but we would be riding 30 m.p.h. next to each other and hardly even working.
The best bicycle ride was a one way trip on a club ride when we were home. This was a tailwind only ride achieved only through the most high tech meteorological means of wind prediction. The bicycle group all boarded the shuttle bus and drove about two hours into the wind. We then rode one way, back home, with the wind pushing us all the way. It was exhilarating the whole way. We regularly reached speed over 40 mph. I think my top was 46 and it was downright scary. If you’ve never seen a touring bicycle, look at the width of the tires and tell me how you might feel looking at them and the road going by.
In life, we can’t go back but we can change some of the elements around us. We are on a trip and I guarantee that you will not have a tailwind only life. None of us do. My point today as I listen to the wind gust outside is that if you do the work to get yourself far enough down the road into the wind, you can have the options to set a new course and ride the tailwind home. Do the work you need to know and the ride with the wind will be spectacular. Can you feel it?
[http://www.yourlifeofcash.com]
Brent Miller
My father got into bicycling after one particularly unsettling annual physical. I still don’t know exactly what the doctor told him but I can imagine there was a part about lack of physical exercise and serious health problems if he didn’t change his habits. He changed quickly and bought a nice touring bicycle. I was ten at the time and he took me out riding with him for his warm up rides. We would go a couple of miles and he would drop me back off at home before he went out for his serious ride.
After a bit, he bought me a nicer bike and I began going with him on 10 and 20 mile rides. About a year later, we both rode together on BAK (Bike Across Kansas). It was a great 500 mile trip over a week. We did it a few more times together in the years to come. These are great memories I have of my dad from my childhood.
If you’ve never been to Kansas, you don’t know about wind. Actually, you may know wind but you don’t know WIND. I still don’t understand how it can push you in multiple directions at the same time but it does. Western Kansas is flat. It is really, really flat. So the wind picks up speed and really can beat you around. Do you see the life analogy yet?
So my dad and I rode 70-80 miles a day across Kansas. We even put in a few centennial (100 miles in one day) rides just for fun. And occasionally, we would get a tail wind for part of the day. Only part of the day and only occasionally but we would be riding 30 m.p.h. next to each other and hardly even working.
The best bicycle ride was a one way trip on a club ride when we were home. This was a tailwind only ride achieved only through the most high tech meteorological means of wind prediction. The bicycle group all boarded the shuttle bus and drove about two hours into the wind. We then rode one way, back home, with the wind pushing us all the way. It was exhilarating the whole way. We regularly reached speed over 40 mph. I think my top was 46 and it was downright scary. If you’ve never seen a touring bicycle, look at the width of the tires and tell me how you might feel looking at them and the road going by.
In life, we can’t go back but we can change some of the elements around us. We are on a trip and I guarantee that you will not have a tailwind only life. None of us do. My point today as I listen to the wind gust outside is that if you do the work to get yourself far enough down the road into the wind, you can have the options to set a new course and ride the tailwind home. Do the work you need to know and the ride with the wind will be spectacular. Can you feel it?
[http://www.yourlifeofcash.com]
Brent Miller
