Infected with the Cycling Virus?

My childhood coincided with the chaotic tail end of the 1960’s, a time when idealism had long since faded into the drug-fueled cynicism which would soon transform into the hedonism of the 70’s. Hippies and Yippies were much in the news, and not in a positive way. I remember as a child fearing that I would grow up to be a hippie as if it was a disease you would catch. I currently once again have a similar fear of becoming infected with a disease, except this time it’s bicycling.

Regular readers of this blog (both of you!) know that I have a mixed relationship with cycling. Starting this past year I have been spending more time cycling and have been enjoying it – but I really despise the Lycra®-clad cult that cycling has become.

This winter I decided to sign up for Freezing Saddles, a contest sponsored by the Washington Area Bicyclist Association to encourage people to keep riding through the winter. The contest runs from New Year’s to the spring solstice. About two hundred fifty people are participating, organized into twenty semi-randomly assigned teams (the organizers do make and attempt balance known long-distance riders, newbies, and such across teams). Riders earn points based on the number of rides and miles ridden. Every day you ride a mile or more you earn a bonus of ten miles. Well, it’s been really motivating. One morning I had to be at work at 5 AM and it was 15 degrees out – and I biked to work. Some of my other workouts have been replaced by training rides around my conveniently hilly neighborhood. Plus I try and get out as close as possible to every day, even if it means just doing a so-called “sleaze ride” – a ride of just over a mile taken for no purpose other than to snag the bonus points. This week on a business trip to Mississippi I managed arranged to borrow a bike and got rides in after work on two days (rides outside the DC area, even in warm climates, count!). Let me tell you, it is DARK in southern Mississippi at night. The first night I set out intending to ride the local roads but as soon as I got past the lights of the parking lot at our facility it was pitch black, so I turned my no headlight, no reflectors, Walmart cruiser bike around and instead rode a mile worth of laps around our parking lot. The second night it was drizzly but somehow a little brighter out so I rode laps both around our parking lot and the lot of the adjacent building, 1.2 miles in all.

Laps Around the Lot in Mississippi

Here’s the most shocking moment. At heart I’m still mostly a paddler. In the warm weather whenever I bike on a trail alongside the river I always long to out on the river rather than alongside it, but when I’m kayaking I never wish I was on my bike instead. Well, on a recent cold evening found myself riding into DC. A couple of days earlier I had gone kayaking; the discomfort of winter paddling gear was fresh in my mind. As I rode over Key Bridge I looked down at the river and – gasp – realized that given the cold weather I was happier cycling than kayaking. The horror!