Feeling like writing

I was out riding today (shocker) and got to thinking; “why am I doing this?” Normally this question surfaces in a passive way when you get 50 miles from home, flip around, and find out it’s a headwind going back (to your surprise), but lately I’ve really tried to put reason to it. 
Its funny, here in biker house we so often sum up our day with one number; “I got 5” in response to a roommate inquiring about your plans for the day.  Why do you have 5 (meaning 5 hours of riding)? First of all, what is it about even numbers that are so important in training?  I have ridden past my house at 4:50 and kept going another 10 minutes just so that 5 is there.  I call those 10 minutes principal minutes, as I don’t expect them to help me win any race, but I do intend to carry out my plan, so out of principal I pass the house like an idiot for no better reason than completing my goal.  I have no intention of going into exactly why I ride how long and how hard because I talk about that enough with my coach and its different for everyone.  My question is not really why am I doing this ride, but why am I doing THIS.
This [th is], adjective: Riding a bike.
Today, from a purely objective point of view, I got on a bike, rode south a long way to get water, and then rode back home on the same road.  What was accomplished? Upon arriving at home I was out of the water I apparently went so far to get. Aside from my coach and maybe an attentive roommate, there is nobody who knows what I did today and I don’t really intend on telling you the story. Truth is, not a lot happened.  A lot of cars passed me in the proper respectful way, and some endangered my life to prove a point.  Today I noticed that a lot of snakes unsuccessfully tried to cross the road.  My legs went in circles, sometimes it felt good, sometimes it did not. I got home, hung up the bike, and jumped in the cold pool (where I catch up on the day).
After I invented some delicious chicken gumbo (which I spent a lot of the ride planning), I sat down and watched the last 7k of todays stage of Paris-Nice:

You don’t have to watch this, but its here for those of you who do. In fact, politely watch it after I am done talking, thank you.

3 guys escape with 40k (about 25 miles for us Americans stuck using 12 inches to a foot and arbitrarily so on until we get 5280ft in a mile, yea that is easier) to go, never got more than 30 seconds off the front, and the guy who wins just barely does so.  Another 500m and he would have been dead last.  Seldom does giving 100% of yourself to something result in such joy as arms raised up in victory, in fact most of the time in biking giving 100% of yourself results in nothing substantial.  That’s training. It’s the practice of giving everything you have to no crowd cheering at all, and very often it results in no recognition at all.  Recognition is not my goal, thousands of incredible cyclists have come and gone throughout the years and we really only talk about 10 still today.  I never dream of a legacy like that, besides its not something I would actively enjoy.  What I do get to enjoy are the effects of giving everything I can to something, I have found that this is when the rewards are the greatest.

Fast forward to 6 minutes for the finish, this is the best.

His 3rd Tour de France.  A lifetime of work (granted he is like 6 years old). I doubt he planned on crying across the line, but I think that’s what all that quiet effort will do to you when the day comes for it all to validate itself. He knows what it took, you can see it in his face.  You can call it sacrifice, I think when times are tough I call it that, but its not.  “I got 5” seems so meaningless at first but its really easy to do when you love the challenge to be successful.  More and more I can see cycling as a way to have exactly what I want in life.  I don’t need a lot of money to be happy, which is important in cycling. What I do need is a place to put 100% of myself in something that I love, and I find great reward.  There are few things that I find in life I can do that with, and riding a bike is one.  Pedaling down to Sonoita for some water and coming back on the same road may seem odd, but the second the thought gets into your head that this “5” can lead to more years enjoying life the way I have enjoyed it thus far, with more possibilities as I improve and more goals achieved along the way, your coach has a hard time keeping you off your bike.
The harder I work the closer all my goals seem, and sometimes that can be the very thing that gets me down because something happens that keeps me from working towards them. I feel more focused and motivated than ever to have a great season with this much improved Kenda 5-Hour Energy p/b Geargrinder group of guys.  Everything is building in a positive way to great things this year.  I hope to win stages personally, I hope to do everything in my power to help my teammates win stages, and I hope to make this year so good that next year can only be better. If I can do that, next year I might be able to sign a lease and not be such a nomad, set up a nice little kitchen and a good table to eat delicious food at, ride my bike every day, and happily invite some people over to hang out at my table and talk about whatever the heck we want (hopefully nothing to do with my ride that day).  Maybe, gasp, invite my girlfriend over for dinner from time to time and not require a plane ticket to do so.  If you start thinking like that, and you see a path, it becomes pretty easy to motivate.  You start picturing crying across the finish line of the most important race and then have to tell yourself “slow down, you still have a lot of riding to go today.” All these things you do or don’t do on a daily basis are training. Its not just that ride.
I suppose that is a good reason to live this life. Its going to be a good year.