This week, we ran a piece about someone rediscovering the love of cycling. Without the shackles of heart-rate monitoring and pace-setting, Sean Russell was able to enjoy the landscape around him in a way he couldn’t when in pursuit of personal bests and training goals.
He saw deer galloping in fields, and took time to enjoy the rolling hills. “I looked down at my speed and saw it was just 23km/h, and that was perfect,” he concluded.
Russell’s pursuit of the slow lane has struck a chord – though one commenter under his post, Blue (and I), still marvel at a 23km/h average speed. It is something many agreed with.
“It’s so easy to fall into the over competitive side of cycling, and so important to get back to the roots of your motivation, that is, the joy of riding your bike in the countryside. Competition is fun, but it can become addictive and, ultimately, unhealthy,” wrote Guido, another commenter. “A good balance helps your cycling passion to stay sustainable in the long term.”
Many people commenting on Russell’s article too have been “serious” cyclists, reforming either because of age, or for a lost sense of joy that had become dislodged on long, hard training rides.
“In my early 70s, I favour something in between the leisurely ride and the all-out race, a ride that will keep me in shape without being overly strenuous,” M. Bellefeuille wrote, noting that this balance-point allowed him to enjoy the spectacle of “the mighty St Lawrence River [in North America] as I ride along it!”
Another seasoned rider “with over 750km and hundreds of races in my legs” counts the 23km/h rides as the “pinnacle of my cycling life!” He, too, has kept hold of the simple joy of riding a bike outside. “(Almost) every ride continues to be amazing, just like that first ride, many decades ago!”
It’s easy to fall into the delicious trap of chasing goals. It’s easy, too, to forget that Strava is a kind of social media, a tool to measure yourself not only against your previous workouts, but against the people you follow, and the friends you ride with. It’s addictive, one commenter reminds us.
“A very important lesson in life is that there will always be someone better/richer/slimmer/taller than you; it’s a fool’s errand chasing the top spot,” they wrote. “Ride your bike for yourself, not anyone else.”
The people responding to Russell’s story of lost and rekindled love met the article at different stages in their own journey with our sport. Some bolstered by the permission to go slower, to ride differently. Others, however, are at Russell’s pain-point, when his desire to ride had fallen flat.
“I haven’t been riding for about six weeks now, and still don’t feel any desire to do so,” Sammy said. “I hope that in time I will be able to go out on my bike and just enjoy the ride and not race my hardest every time . That would be great to ride under no pressure at all.”
Larry, on the other hand, taps out a comment, joy sparking: “I was not much good at racing anyway so why was I ruining a nice ride? If it wasn’t fun why do it? I still overdid things despite not racing and am paying the price but with e-bike now I can have fun without worrying about making my heart issues worse.”
One seasoned time triallist pitched in, swapping Garmin-monitored summer training sessions with off-season rides designed purely with enjoyment in mind: “heart rate, cadence, power – so what?”
