Author Topic: For Those About To Ride  (Read 2393 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Sal Atticum

  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: 7121
  • Karma: 38
  • Gender: Male
    • Campus Dakota
For Those About To Ride
« on: October 27, 2010, 10:07:09 AM »
Today is the first real test this fall of your resolve to remain a cyclist.  The streets are filling up with water.  Roofs are blowing off houses.  People are walking blindly around campus with umbrellas held up to warn off weather and rider alike.  The snow will come, and soon enough it will remain.

Today, there are many more cars in the parking lot than bicycles in the racks.  The majority of campus will continue to follow this example, but not you.  You are a cyclist.  You will ride to class.  You will return home wet, muddy, bedraggled, and vow never to do it again.

"What's one day of driving?" you will ask yourself.  You will drive, and you will enjoy it.  You will laugh at the pedestrians struggling through the snowbanks across campus from inside your warm vehicle.  Then you will realize something, not that you are keeping up with homework better, or that you are dry once you get to class, but that you are incomplete.  You will remember cycling.  It will be snowing and you will go ride.  No wetness, no bedragglation, just pure winter bliss of riding.  You will begin to ride again, but it will be too late.  The winter will pass, you will have to regain your fitness from scratch, and you will feel the same next year.

An alternative story: you forgo driving for one, two, three more days.  You race cyclocross.  You love it--or hate it.  You train.  You get faster.  You win prizes and meet new people.  You buy fenders and ride to class--no more wet.  You never forget how much fun cycling is, and you want to advance.  You go to spin classes.  You join the team for practices.  Before you know it, you have ridden half the winter with no more thought than the average student gives to sitting in a car for half an hour to warm up, only to drive three blocks and park again.  You burn fat and gain muscle.

You have learned a lot this fall.  You have gained new skills and new friends.  Keep the fire burning and spring will truly be a rebirth; if you throw in the towel now, no advances will be made. 

Test your mind and your body: ride today.
JUST EXTRA POLISH. I DO SOME WORK WITH EXCELL SO I KEEP THE CAPS LOCK ON :-P

Offline sanders

  • UND
  • *
  • Posts: 569
  • Karma: 11
Re: For Those About To Ride
« Reply #1 on: October 27, 2010, 10:12:26 AM »
Great Write beek!! That was awesome, and so true!!
Alone you are an athlete but on a bike you are a rocket

Offline Mario

  • Training is like fighting with a gorilla. You don’t stop when you’re tired. You stop when the gorilla is tired
  • UND
  • *
  • Posts: 1276
  • Karma: 10
  • Crossing around
Re: For Those About To Ride
« Reply #2 on: October 27, 2010, 12:02:30 PM »
Beek, where is my APROVEW sign  :mario: ? Stamp it! You should also lock this thread to the top! To all of you who read it: Beek is right! There probably wasn't many of us, but for three years I (Beek, and just hadfull more of us) rode to class every day, no matter the weather. We've practiced indoors on the trainers or in the spin class, and let me tell you, when the spring came, we were ready to go on our road bikes, without studs and ski goggles and helmets (Beek). Think about it, and stick to it. Don't ride only when you find time for it (because you will never do). Instead, make time and commitment to ride. That is the only way to do it. Then, for the spring break you can come down to Iowa and ride outside with me without struggling (just as we have done for last couple of years).

:approve:
« Last Edit: October 27, 2010, 12:19:06 PM by Sal Atticum »
The minimum number of bikes one should own is three.  The correct number is n+1, where n is the number of bikes currently owned.  This equation may also be re-written as s-1, where s is the number of bikes owned that would result in separation from your partner.

Offline Bedwyr

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 52
  • Karma: 4
Re: For Those About To Ride
« Reply #3 on: October 29, 2010, 05:31:55 PM »
Quote
For those about to ride...

We salute you?

 

With Quick-Reply you can write a post when viewing a topic without loading a new page. You can still use bulletin board code and smileys as you would in a normal post.

Name: Email:
Verification:
Type the letters shown in the picture
Listen to the letters / Request another image
Type the letters shown in the picture:
What color is an apple, it starts with an r?:
What is 5 plus 5?:
Which Dakota has the city of Fargo:

anything
realistic