BFTP: Lessons learned from bicycling

A weekend Blue Skunk "feature" will be a revision of an old post. I'm calling this BFTP: Blast from the Past. Original post June 25, 2006 Since I am struggling to find time to train for an upcoming week-long bike ride in Wisconsin in a couple weeks, I thought this post worth repeating.

Another lovely weekend in Minnesota and the LWW and I spent a fair chunk of it on our bicycles, riding to Red Wing from Cannon Falls (MN) and back. Some Lessons Learned from Bicycling:

1. It's usually uphill and against the wind. (Murphy's Law of Bicycling)
2. Most big hills that look impossible are usually a series of small hills that are possible.
3. I've never met a hill I couldn't walk up.
4. It's better to shift to a lower gear than to stop altogether.
5. Sometimes it's nice to be able to have equipment to blame things on.
6. You really can't make your own weather.
7. Coasting feels good, but you don't get much exercise doing it.
8. A beer at the end of a long day of riding tastes better than a beer when just sitting around (or at breakfast, I'm guessing).
9. Don't drink at lunch time and expect to enjoy the afternoon.
10. Bike helmets are a sure sign that natural selection is still a force of nature.
11. The five minutes putting air in your tires at the beginning of the day is time well spent.
12. There will always be others who are faster and riders who are slower.
13. Watching as old people zip by you should be encouraging, not discouraging.
14. Too often we quit because our spirit fails, not our legs or lungs.
15. Spouses (or entire families) who dress alike should not expect the rest of us to consider them normal human beings.
16. Too much padding between you and a bike seat is impossible.
17. Before you wear Spandex in public look at your backside in the mirror. Please.
18. The happiest people are the ones who consider life a ride, not a race.
19. The more expensive the gear, the higher the expectations.
20. The 500 calories burnt exercising do not compensate for the 2000 calories from beer drunk celebrating your accomplishment.
21. Everyone can look buxom on a bicycle - guys included.
22. You always feel the headwind, but never the tailwind. But it's there.
23. Most forms of travel involve some degree of discomfort. But keep moving anyway.
24. Cows always have the right of way.
25. You will eventually dry out even after the biggest downpour.

And your observations, fellow bicyclists?

Comments

[Stephen Downes]

Hill can be climbed but wind can only be endured.

[Andrew Chlup]

Generally speaking, you'll bear more scars from a crash than the object into which you crashed.

:)