At the start of club rides that I lead, I have a standard speech about rules and safety. I usually end with asking if there are any "Questions, comments, problems, arguments, or discussion?". Friend Jack H often asks some silly question as a joke, and I've taken to being silly right back.
He's evidently been reading the rider agreement on the club sign-in sheet, which includes that the rider will "know my limits". He asked today if we could really know our limits, and I told him to write me an essay about it, as if I were his eighth-grade social studies teacher.
He must have been thinking about it on the ride; he took it far more seriously than I intended, and sent me this in response:
Jim, What an interesting subject, I will try to
stay focused on how limits pertain to the joy of cycling. Do we
really know our limits? At the moment we do. We can feel it..
But do we ( I) normally push past that point? I would say yes.
So the more interesting point would be Why?
Do we strive to be stronger, to belong, to be accepted? Or
all the above. As humans we always want more. You name it,
there aren't many people content with the status quo.
The club would like you to know your limits. When? When you
feel like you could go on forever at the start of a ride. When
you see the ride posted and second guess how strong you may or
may not be. Are you feeling great after not riding much the
last week. Did you put in a personal best with mileage for the
week and think , bring on the A riders.
Cycling is a unique activity . Greg leMond once said ( it
never gets easier, you just get stronger).
The more we ride I would assume on some level we do know
our estimate limit. But if we just sit in and take it easy we
can ride in that next level up or that longer ride. We can
improve our endurance, our abilities. How else to improve.
In theory it would be great to know our limits. But , say
we do. We sign up for a ride we know we can do. But the other
number of riders want to extend their limits. Does that blow
your limits out the back of the group?
It is naive for me to assume others' motives or
aspirations. I know myself and still am shocked at how my
limits change from season to season, week to week , day to
day. Is the better statement, Know yourself. Now at this
point we can really go past the entry price to the club. I
COULD suggest upon applying for a club membership the club
have cyclists fill out a questionnaire about oneself.
Do we really want to go there?
To know one's limits is to know oneself. Oh boy, I've been
reading way too many quotes from the book (Words To Ride By.)
In the amazing words of Sir David Attenborough, ( If I can
bicycle, I bicycle) I have nothing more to say on the
subject. Or maybe I do......
I need to listen more. There are more things in these people I call friends than I expect.
> ... amazing words of Sir David Attenborough, ( If I can bicycle, I bicycle)
ReplyDelete+1 couldn't agree more
On limits, they're a funny thing. You can know them until you push them. Learned that doing double centuries. You don't know how easy they are until you've done the hard work for them.
Also sometimes limits are something you place on yourself. Can I do a grand bike across the US, probably, but I'd rather do something else.