Campus Dakota
Group Memberships => UND Cycling => Topic started by: Sal Atticum on October 27, 2010, 10:07:09 AM
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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.
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Great Write beek!! That was awesome, and so true!!
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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:
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For those about to ride...
We salute you?