My Thoughts on Cycling - and Life

My wheels - my buddy - I love her!

Most of you know that I am a weekend warrior - I bicycle with a group for 30 miles every Saturday morning. It has been hard keeping up but I keep working at getting better. I WILL NOT be left behind - must be part of that Redfield thing that we talk about in my family. I also go to the gym 3 days a week but it isn't the same as riding a road bike. 

In our cycling group I'm the oldest and female, while most of the riders are men, doctors, and in their 30's or 40's, and they are competitive.  Just let some outsider ride by at a good clip and they are all off chasing him like a hound with a fox. Us women (there are 4 others who come sporatically) are content to be at the back of the pack, and when they take off like crazy men we just laugh cuz we know that eventually they will get tired and hopefully realize that there are some of us still behind them, and they must wait for us, for after all, we are a team. 

As the weeks have gone on I've been learning about what it means to be a good team member on a cycling team.  One thing is that the leader needs to be constantly changing so that one person doesn't get too tired.  This week I was in the lead as we left the meeting place.  The wind was blowing pretty hard in my face and I stuggled to keep my speed at 15 MPH for about 3 miles. 2 of the docs behind me were talking away, enjoying their conversation.  Then one of them broke in front of me and said "you are working your butt off up here, let me take the lead" and I gladly let him. It was much easier riding behind someone who was breaking the wind a bit. That's how life should be. When you see someone struggling, take their burden for a bit, until they can handle it again.  On another section it is uphill, desolate and the wind is always in your face. We stayed together as a group with the strongest rider in the lead through that section and stayed going the same speed so no one got left behind.  Why isn't life that way?

This week we were joined by 2 other riders who were expert riders (I could tell by their leg muscles and their bike attire) and it was obvious that they could go fast.  For a while they stayed with our group and I enjoyed riding behind 4 guys going 19 MPH without even pedaling. Drafting really does work. Sometimes let others do the work and just enjoy being carried along - as long as that is okay with them.

Then there is warning the others about oncoming traffic, road hazards and things of interest - mainly roadkill. We should look out for others.

Coming back to our meeting place the wind was at our backs so the riding was much easier. We were able to ride at 20-24 MPH and had a blast racing along for the last 5 miles.  That's how life should be too - enjoy life when the going is easy because you never know when you'll have that wind in your face holding you back again.