What do you have to have to quantify a good ride? Do you have a tic list? I personally can't tell you what makes a good ride. I do know that you can be by yourself or you can share. When you are with other riders the dynamic has to be spot on, but when it is, you just know. There is no agenda, let's just ride bikes and see what happens. Unfettered freedom shared amongst friends, teammates, brothers in the fraternity of the cycle. It is a rare occasion when everyone involved has the same shared experience, but when it happens you just sit back order another post-ride beer and enjoy.
The stars were aligned yesterday. Winter is releasing it's clutch and getting outdoors into a sunny afternoon was paramount. James was in and we met at Marty's. Two of my favorite riding partners, James who is an engine that only has an ON and OFF, and Marty 'el capitan' who elevates anyone who he shares a paceline. The sun was out, the bike was freed from the trainer and the company was exquisite. You can have the same elements for every ride, but they will not always have the same outcome.
I'm thinking about the ride yesterday and there is nothing I can put my finger on and say "that is it" the holy grail of good rides. It just happened, good people on bikes on a beautiful day. It turned into a hard ride where we tested our legs and fitness, but it felt so good to go to the edge and have company. Redline was pushed, but the workload was shared and the common goal was -no goal at all. We were racing the sun, the wind, each other, and ourselves.
Sitting on the deck at the Blue Rose sharing a post-ride beer with the sun warming the embro was the only way to cap off a good ride. We talked about our ride, racing, cycling, and how good it was to be outside. Yesterday I learned what it means to ride together. You can make a list of everything that we did and try and follow it like a playlist, but it will never be replicated. Will there be other good rides? Yes, but they are not manufactured -they just happen.
Ah yes, the words always fall a bit short, and only serve as sign posts -- merely pointing at the thing itself. A great ride with my mates, while the sun spoke to my soul, and my legs screamed that my mind has gone crazy. Two hours of ridin with minimal conversation. 3 amigos drilling it... we did not need words to communicate our desires, our mission, our position... somehow we just knew... As it was my turn to pull towards the end of the ride over one of the last hills... my heart rate cracked 180 (185 to be exact)... i began to crater... i was f'in dying... it was a terrible spot to pull off... James just pushed me a bit... I recoverd just barley... and again my rate crept to 185... AGAIN a push from James... just enough to get us over the hill with minimal lose of momentum or rythm, and now I could get off the front. How did James know... hell I couldn't have spoken anything that made sense at that moment... I hadn't even lost my smooth pedal stroke yet. James just watched my upper body stiffen with the rigor of hypoxemia... and knew in a millisecond I would have completely exploded (and would have shattered the fluidity of the day), and in the nic-o-time pushed me just enough to recover from the edge of the great abyss. Not only did he observe these signs once, but twice. No my friends this was not mere chance, but rather the etherial nonverbal laguage that teammates posess. That was a great ride.
ReplyDeleteLovely day for a Guiness