cycling

Lessons from my commute

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More than anything, biking to work serves as a daily reminder of the journey of life. 

In biking it’s all about timing the lights. Coming to a full stop, losing momentum, with the bonus of forgetting to gear down? You earned yourself back sweat and a disgruntled rider. 

Without even trying, biking becomes a competitive game of “can I pass that person?” When I pass someone on my commute I automatically feel like a winner. I never take into account a head start, momentum, a higher starting point on a downhill. No, it’s just my skill. And yet, when that same person comes flying past me and I’m a sitting duck at a newly turned green, I’m fuming. Them? Again? I just passed them? 

Pass someone who is stopped at the bottom of a hill, and you have the full momentum of mother gravity you feel like a grinning bat straight out of hell. Cackling as you speed by. And yet, cycling, like life, has a way of humbling you. Suddenly it’s you hitting the next red, and you’re being passed by a runner (it was uphill and his legs went on for days, while my stubs were barely keeping the chain turning).

In life I think we divide up success as the distance between two lights. We focus on getting ahead of people in the short term, instead of realizing it’s about how we ride the whole course, not simply light to light. If I get ahead of that person first, if I buy a house, land the job, find the husband, then I’m winning. But it’s not about the space between lights, it’s about where you’re going (hold onto your helmets, this is about to get cheesy). 

While you’re busy watching the other person sail past you, you’re too green with envy to notice what set that person up for success. They got a head start, they had the help of gravity, their bike is lighter and faster, they had the luck of timing. None of that I can control, but I can control my ride. I can change my mindset from lights to long term. Instead of wanting to get everything first, what about securing the foundation to a happy life? 

And isn’t that life? Sure their instagram is lit, and they suffer for nothing, but I’m working focusing on enjoying the ride and where I’m headed, not beating my fellow commuters. Aren’t we all just trying to get where we’re going?

My Ode to Cycling

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I have the joy of biking to work. 

Though I stand by calling it a joy, I have to do a shoutout to all the bike lane dwellers.  We earn our (reflective) stripes through biking in the dark, the wet, and the windy. To the cyclists who frequent the bike cage all year round, my helmet off to you! For those who fall into the fairweather biking category, listen up.

Winter does not smile on the cyclists. The surprisingly vulnerable part of the body when biking? The ears. Those in the car crank the heat. Those at the bus stop pull their lapels higher. The cyclists? They bike on valiantly, cursing themselves for forgetting their buffs, yet again, and swearing tomorrow will be different.

Read no further before you are reminded of the curse of the wet socks. The days at work when fate would have it that I squelch around with wet feet because my rain booties, rain pants, and fenders just didn’t cut it. Did I mention that I never thought I would be THAT cyclists who justified rain booties. You don’t make the decisions, they make you.

I could go on about looking like a flashing christmas tree on wheels, the cars that own the middle of the road oblivious to the meaning of a bike route, or the awkwardness of paniers, but I digress

My commute is my process time. Some people have yoga mats, others their meditation pillows, I have the motion of my legs, and the time to let the day fall away. Something about spinning those wheels in a productive way that really soothes the brain. The patient that yelled at me, the lack of resources or my weary feet, become less poignant, and by the time I’m dismounting, laughing with my coworkers and the beauty of the ocean have replaced it all.