Going the distance
Some biking thoughts.
Recently, I biked ~26 miles, from my house to the Point in Hyde Park and back. It was my longest bike ride ever, and my third big ride in my efforts to “train” (to the extent I even need to?) for a big European bike trip I’m taking in the fall.
I am very excited for this trip. My vision is that I will cycle around Italy all day every day, getting hungry for pasta, and then every night… I’ll eat pasta. I mean! That’s the life for me. The one catch is that to live this beautiful dream I must also bike 40-60 miles per day. On an ebike, so it’s not THAT serious, but still.
Preparing for the trip has already been illuminating. I sort of suspect the prep will be the best part. There’s something very cool about doing something new (biking far) in familiar places (Chicago, my body). It’s a non-spatial vacation from my routines. Type 2 Vacation.
Here are some things I’ve learned from my biking adventures so far:
Strava is really useful. I thought it was just for runners, but it’s also for bikers; it tracks how far you go in a very precise way, and saves a map of where you went. Without it, I would have no idea if I biked 7 miles or 500 miles; I have no body-feel for distance. Unfortunately, the price of knowing my distance is knowing my speed, which is tragically slow due to…
Wind. The riptide of the air! I found biking out to the Point “a breeze,” because there was a literal breeze behind me the whole time — but then home, it blew enormous gusts into my face. My bike speaker, set to the same volume I had heard and enjoyed on the ride out, was inaudible. I was biking at a sometimes walking pace. Wind is serious! Especially for me. I was passed many times on my way home by more wind-resilient (strong) bikers going in the same direction.
Biking makes me see the city differently. I typically take transit to places far from my house, such as Hyde Park, and I kind of zone out along the way, listening to a podcast. I only start paying full attention once I get to my destination. So I experience most things outside a five-mile radius of my home as these little… islands of consciousness? But I’m more continuously present when I’m biking, and it helps me feel how the city is not a constellation of destinations. It’s all one big slab!
I get nervous about getting home. I don’t understand how far I can go without overextending myself yet. I think encouragingly to myself, a lot, that I just have to do my best and it’s okay to take breaks. But it makes my brain restless to be out and about, unsure how hard or time-consuming it will be to get home. I keep thinking, “My cat is alone! Is he okay?” (Sometimes when I’m not sure I’m okay I do weird proxy worrying about whether my cat is okay.)
Locations are stored in my memory in an interesting way. I was biking on the Lakefront Trail, and it helped me remember my last big Southbound bike trip on the Lakefront Trail, which I took a couple years ago with my ex-bf. When I started biking the memory was hazy, but as I biked, it came back into crisp focus. The path felt familiar, and I could tell exactly when I biked past the place my last trip ended. I thought it was cool, how much of the memory was situational / stored in the physical place.
Biking for a long time hurts my hands. Like, a lot, and they kind of go numb. Apparently I am compressing my hand nerves by holding onto the handlebars. Reddit people rec adjusting the fit of your bike (ok) and increasing your core strength (ughh ok). Apparently biking and planking are not dissimilar.
I don’t know how to rest in the middle of a ride. Like, how long does it take to feel refreshed and ready for the ride home? According to r/bicycling I shouldn’t rest for more than 5 minutes unless I’m a freaking loser. But I could be a loser. I think the real issue is I don’t know how it feels for me to be “too tired” or “rested enough” yet, and I just have to feel it out.
More things seem close now. Earlier this year, I biked to my favorite place in the world, the Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool, and felt it was kind of a schlep. After I biked to the Point, I stopped at the pond on my way home to lie on a rock, and I thought of it as a nice scenic pit stop “close to home.” Biking far brings everything a little closer, mentally. I thought that was nice!
Reader question
Do you know about biking sort of far?? Any tips? Anything you’ve learned about yourself from doing it?
Linxxx
Speaking of slabs, which I was above, The Radicle has amazing chocolate slab pie
[Feeling enthusiastic and looking forward to her pastry plans]
Another thirst trap that really worked on me……….. I like how his lips aren’t green SORRY!
The ultimate NSFW New Yorker article ft. real-life Dr. Frankenstein
The next book club book is The Picture of Dorian Gray! Sold out for now but things can change fast.
cackled at "[Feeling enthusiastic and looking forward to her pastry plans]"