Solo mind and body
Cows munching
Wind resisting me
Fast, tan legs
Conscious breath
Rollers to play on
Sunshine all over
Silky road
Little cars
Sunflower smiles
Dodging grasshoppers
Deep, brown cattails
Horse tails sweeping in the wind
Birds flying overhead
Leaves blowing
River flowing
A tailwind to sail me home
Electric sky
Raindrop in my eye
~ Julie Feilen
… clearly one of my Top 10 spins
Photo courtesy of Chris Jules
Ride = feel productively tired, buzzed and happy. Don’t ride = feel crabby, antsy and caged. Simple stuff.
“Cycling, it’s one of those sports you can do eight hours a day. You’re going to be tired at the end, but if you did an eight-hour run you wouldn’t run again for a week. I think people are better, smarter, more present and more patient when they’ve done some type of exercise — that goes for an eight-year-old and a 68-year-old — and I need more, perhaps more than most people, to get the results I want. Bike racing is the thing that provides me with the most balance.” –Lance Armstrong
People pay big money on meds and therapists for the pleasant “high” you get from a bike ride. Whether you are the cruiser type or serious cyclist, the velo buzz runs deep… deep into the core of the mind and body to produce endorphins, burn calories and bond with the outdoors.
My recent high country, endurance ride told me so. Dang, that ride was tough… but fun! Climb, then climb, then climb until the legs and lungs scream “are we there yet?” But to bask in the views, have the silky plants and flowers brush your legs as you pedal past, and to breathe in the green aromas puts you in a state of pure euphoria… mmmmmm. Dodging the killer rocks, planting myself in a bush and digging a pedal in my shin, it was all good. So good. I stopped and looked over at my friend who is well-seasoned with the “high” country and said “This makes you tough.” She said “Yep, that’s why I like it.”
Nope, I’m not crazy. There are many others, so that makes me sane. The velo buzz is alive and well. Check out this info from studies they’ve done (taken from from bicycling.com, an article called “Really Done” by Bill Strickland):
“Afterward, I researched the idea he (Lance) was talking about and confirmed that this is not just some idiosyncratic theory of the good life Armstrong has cooked up as justification. There are some scientific indications that because cycling combines sustained aerobic exercise with complex brain functions such as balance, timing and spatial awareness, it might be ideally suited to soothe the brain. In a 2008 study of 115 students at the Humboldt University of Berlin’s Institute of Sport Science, students who engaged in 10 minutes of exercise that required complex, highly coordinated movements performed better on a test measuring attention and concentration than students who did simpler aerobic exercise. (And both groups tested better than when they hadn’t exercised.) Another study at Vanderbilt University found that after performing short, complex exercises that emphasized balance and quick reaction and decision making — all descriptors of what it takes to navigate a race peloton — adults were 40 percent more successful at solving a puzzle than when trying to do so after being idle. In a 2005 survey of clinical trials and research held at a conference in Washington, D.C., among the presentations from scientists from Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins, the University of Wisconsin and Duke University Medical School were findings that the changes in the brain activity of meditating monks are directly comparable to the changes that occur during the act of pedaling a bicycle.”
Get out and ride. Feel the wind in your face, bugs in your teeth from grinning ear-to-ear, and enjoy the scenery. If it’s raining, smell the sweet air, get dirty flinging mud everywhere (if you don’t, go faster) and splash in the puddles. Be a kid… we still really are, but just in a bigger body.
Prove it. Live it. Enjoy it.
“No one said that a conscious path was easy. It’s easier, at least in the short term, to change channels, crack another beer, grab a slice of pizza, take the blue pill, and descend into a self-induced coma. Probably 90 percent of people do this, so it’s not as though you’ll lack for company.”
~Jack Bennett of thirty-two thousand days
No one said this life was going to be easy. My dad always warned me “Life’s tough… get used to it.” I think it may be a lot easier than we make it though. Have it be more conscious, collective, content, and creative. Not that a beer and pizza with a good movie is bad, but to be able to break out and breathe in is a good thing.
11… what does it mean?
• A rocket must travel at over 11km per second to escape the Earth’s gravity.
• The space shuttle went up on its 11th mission, weighing 11 tons and fixed an errant satellite on the 11th day of the 11th month.
• The deepest point of the ocean floor is 11km at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
• The average adult male heart weighs 11 ounces.
• The number 11 is a prime number, which cannot be divided by anything other than itself.
• World War I ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
• “Two pillars standing side by side will support far more than twice of what either pillar would individually.” ~Jerry J. Davis
Here’s 11 hints for life:
1. It hurts to love someone and not be loved in return. But what is more painful is to love someone and never find the courage to let that person know how you feel.
2. A sad thing in life is when you meet someone who means a lot to you, only to find out in the end that it was never meant to be and you just have to let go.
3. The best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a porch swing with, never say a word, and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you’ve ever had.
4. It’s true that we don’t know what we’ve got until we lose it, but it’s also true that we don’t know what we’ve been missing until it arrives.
5. It takes only a minute to get a crush on someone, an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone – but it takes a lifetime to forget someone.
6. Don’t go for looks, they can deceive. Don’t go for wealth, even that fades away. Go for someone who makes you smile because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright.
7. Dream what you want to dream, go where you want to go, be what you want to be. Because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do.
8. Always put yourself in the other’s shoes. If you feel that it hurts you, it probably hurts the person too.
9. A careless word may kindle strife. A cruel word may wreck a life. A timely word may level stress. But a loving word may heal and bless.
10. The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.
11. Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, ends with a tear. When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so that when you die, you’re the one smiling and everyone around you is crying.
~ Unknown
“Eleven Hints for Life” shared from Lance Ekum @ The Jungle of Life.
11 sign photo
11 painting photo
