After a late night of sprinklers, pop-its, s’mores, and glow in the dark America-themed head pieces celebrating the 4th of July, and then dunking ourselves in the water reservoir in the morning, we biked away from our campsite in Starvation, Utah today. The driving shifts the past couple days worked out so that I biked about 75 miles yesterday and 60 miles today — in other words, the longest number of back-to-back hours I’ve spent on the road biking. By this point, I feel that I am qualified to officially say that biking induces 5 distinct stages of biking thoughts.
Stage 1: Blissful Ignorance
Up to the first 5 or so miles of the ride, muscles are still getting warmed up (so the speed is gradually and comfortably increasing), the sun is rising (so the temperature is cool, yet everything has a golden glow), and the scenery is interesting (we’re still navigating the farm and/or downtown roads to reach the main highway). At this point in the ride, exclamations such as “it’s so beautiful today!” and “wow, I love biking!” are audible. All selfies and pictures that bikers are visible in (sorry, I’m exposing our secret…) are taken during this stage. We are all blissful because the ride is objectively the easiest and most pleasant right now. We are all ignorant of what specific challenges the ride will hold.
These smiles are from the first 10 minutes of the afternoon portion of today’s ride :)
Scenery highlight of the day: we saw real-life cowboys herding cattle! We were delighted to moo back at the cows as we biked - it was magical
Stage 2: Itches and Aches
As we ease out of stage 1, our muscles are fully warmed up (so we are biking at a steady, rapid speed), the sun has risen (so the heat is palpable), and we almost definitely are on some highway (cue the flying debris, roadkill, and whizzing cars). At this point, we fall silent besides the routine water breaks and steady huffing along the road. Every aspect of the ride feels constant, and the road and team conversation stop providing novel stimulus. Suddenly bored, the mind wanders to the new bug bites that have blossomed overnight, the trickle of sunscreen that snuck its way into an open eye, the joint that was insufficiently stretched. The bliss and ignorance have evolved into steady grumpiness.
By now, every single one of Victoria’s bites would be actively itchy :(
Stage 3: Abject Regret and Existentialism
Now that we’re in the steady middle of the ride and we’re deeply aware of every itch and ache on our body, some form of uninvited obstacle will inevitably come. Perhaps the climb will be felt steeper than the percentage grade on the Garmin, a headwind will emerge out of nowhere, a road will be closed, some tire will run a flat or some chain will start squeaking, or something else from the hundreds of possible scenarios. Every pedal forward feels exhausting, and every obstacle feels like a rude, personal attack. During this stage, my thoughts personally range from trying to convince myself that my aching joint will not detach itself from its socket, to cursing the entire conceptualization of sports and athleticism (seriously, whose idea was it?)
Victoria’s marshmallow pretty much visually captures the state of our thoughts and emotions
Stage 4: Optimism for the Future
As the Garmin beeps the final miles, then we begin fixating on our reward for finishing this leg of the ride. We dream of the warm shower, the AC, the PB & J, the cold sports drink, the phone call, the outlets, the WiFi— whatever it is that we are most excited for and count down the minutes to this reward. Comments like “5 miles left!” are met with weak “yay”s and all the pain suddenly feels manageable. Words of encouragement like “power through” and “no loser vibes allowed today” keep us going.
Everyone has different motivators — today, Victoria enjoyed a gas station workout, and Jordan and Alex enjoyed a bike tune-up
Stage 5: Euphoria
Hooray, we’ve made it to our destination! We pull into the parking lot and stumble off our bikes. All faces are smiling. We’re suddenly eager to get back on the road. What a joy biking is! Let’s do it again!
Nothing to end a ride like a delicious mayo and cheez it sandwich!
Sincerely,
Helen