Tips To Enjoy The Ride

December 28, 2008

Here are my suggestions for those who take the leap and set out on a tour.

Pace yourself. It is not necessary to bike fast or be quick on the climbs. Think of them as your workout for the day. Gear down. Relax your upper body. Use your abdominal muscles to hold your torso.

Keep your legs going, but look up and look around. Take in the sights, the vegetation, the rocks, the mountains, the birds, the sky, and the clouds.

Be where you are. Dispel any tendency to feel the need to be elsewhere. Do not be concerned about where you will end the day or about arriving there at some particular time.

Be where you are. Dispel any tendency to feel the need to be elsewhere.

When you get there, you can think of being there. For now, enjoy where you are. You will never be here, at this place, in this set of circumstances, with these people, again, ever.

In my opinion, making the most and the best of where you are is your most precious purpose. Do not fret that another cyclist is ahead of you. Do not feel that you have to catch up or keep up with them.

The faster, stronger cyclist can slow his or her pace a bit to create a sociable cycling experience.

Be observant. Do not miss the nature that surrounds you. Even if you are cycling and talking together, remember to look around. Behold the life around you. Watch the local people as you go by and wave to them. Become aware of what is occupying their day.

Wave to drivers. Sending them a friendly message may make a difference in how they react to the next cyclist that they pass. Your friendly wave may cause them to slow for the next cyclist, or pass by, allowing more space between their vehicle and the other cyclist.

If you do not like the gesture a driver gives you, do not add to it. Do not perpetuate what you do not like. Let it stop with you. Suck it up.

Ask the angels to handle that driver’s issues. Be glad that you do not have to live or work with that person. That driver is the one with the crappy life that they just reenergized into their life.

Return a friendly gesture to them. Try it. Do not miss the hawks perched on the utility poles along side the road you are pedaling on.

Stop occasionally to look back to see the sights and the miles that you have come.

You are traveling at the perfect pace to allow the nuances of nature to permeate into your essence, where they might penetrate to your mind and feelings. Stop occasionally to look back to see the sights and the miles that you have come.

Enjoy the awareness of the places that you have been.

Give thanks for your blessings. Be grateful for your health. Realize how rich you are to be out here on your fine bicycle. Celebrate that you have all that you have.

Celebrate your friends, your family, your home, your job, your income, your vision, your co-cyclists sharing these experiences, and the staff that is assisting you.

Rejoice in this vast country that you are so experiencing now.

By Georgia Glashauser