10 Things I Have Learned on a Bike Trail

I am an avid cyclist, or at least I try to be. I can’t remember a time that I haven’t loved being on a bike – as a child it was mostly a method of transportation – to friends’ houses or to wherever the day took me. As an adult, it is my favorite leisure activity – I use it to de-stress, spend some quality time outside, and for exercise purposes.

Yesterday, I got the opportunity to ride my favorite trail. It is a 14 mile round trip “closed course” – a trail located somewhat in the middle of nowhere, inside a nature preserve. It is a beautiful and peaceful place. Despite being such a lucrative path, it is seldom crowded. There are no crossroads (unlike other bike trails in the area) which allows you to get some decent speed going, too. It is a little bit of a windy path in some spots – in one section it runs parallel to a small stream where the tree cover is thick. Thus, it’s a heavily shaded area, even on the sunniest of days. It’s not at all unusual to see deer, turkey, gopher tortoises, and other animals just leisurely moving about their day in the grassy meadows. Most of the time they pay you no mind at all – as long as you don’t get in their way, they tend not to get in yours, either.

During my rides, I often do my best thinking. I let my mind empty when I get on the bike at the trail head, and I just go forth. No agenda – whatever comes, comes. Staring at the open road while I adjusted my pedals yesterday, I stopped to think about how similar taking a long ride and just living day to day really are.

1. Show up. That bike isn’t going to ride itself – and as such, your life needs YOU to be there in order to be lived.

2. Be prepared. Showing up is great, but if you don’t bring what you need on your journey…that journey is going to be a lot more tedious and difficult.

3. The journey is going to have bumps. Sometimes, things don’t go as planned. You hit a pothole, suffer a setback, encounter a difficulty, or get a flat tire. It happens to us all, and it’s seldom really “the end of the world” — even though it might seem that way at the time.

4. Out of the darkness, comes the light. Just as part of the trail might be darker, narrower or bumpier than others…difficult times in life don’t last forever. You can’t ride a bike forwards if you are looking backwards. You can’t move forward in your life if you keep looking backwards, either.

5. Do not measure your own success by that of others. There’s always going to be someone going faster than you. There’s also always someone going slower than you. Don’t worry about their pace – just worry about yours.

6. If you speed by too fast, you might miss the beauty around you.

7. Life was around before you, and it will be around after you are long gone. Those tortoises in the road? They were here first. So move over. There is enough room for both of you.

8. Not motivated to go that next mile? Find something that pushes you to do so.  For me, music does wonders in this department. Your mileage may vary.  Disclaimer: NIN happened to be what was playing on shuffle…not necessarily saying that this song particularly motivates me. Though it is a good song

9. Going uphill is hard. Going downhill is easy (and you can go much faster). Unfortunately, you must go up to come down. So hang in there.

10. The journey is long. Stay with it. The sense of accomplishment you will feel at the end will be worth it.

Happy riding!