The Obsession: Faster, Stronger, Harder…The Quest for Speed

It hit…that perfect ride where speed just seemed to power through your legs and every bit of singletrack flew by with ease. You got the taste, the taste of what it would be like if you were a faster and stronger rider than you are today.

If only every ride could be exactly like that one with power on tap, heart rate controlled and speed at your figure tips. It is that ride that burns in our brains as we take that next pedal stroke hoping for that extra ounce of energy that will throw us over that line and into the realm of faster, stronger riding.

For many riders, it becomes an obsession that is easy to fall into. Each ride is a quest to push it past that limit we consider normal to extend the threshhold our body is capable of. With each ride, that line is crossed. With each ride, we are looking for new ways to become a faster and stronger rider. No…we might not race…and if we do…we are not pros, but the obsession lives on as we continually push the envelope.

Then it happens…we forgot to have fun on the bike.

Wait? What?! It’s a trap! Don’t get me wrong. For some riders, that quest to be faster and stronger is the fun in mountain biking. For other riders, it is just increased pressure to succeed that eventually leads down the path of over exertion and lost sight of why we are on our bikes to begin with. That small taste of mountain biking immortality brings out the worst in our competitive nature with ourselves.

I get this really bad sometimes. Out on the trail or the road, I have the thought in the back of my head, “you own a cycling based blog/website, kick it up a notch!”. Last weekend, I headed out on a solo 42 mile road ride with the goal to hit it big. I was going to average 20 mph over the course of the 42 mile solo attempt come hell or high water. You just watch…I am that fast.

The truth…I am not that fast. I kept the pace alive until about mile 34 and then the bomb dropped and I limped my way home to a 18.6 mph average overall. Now, 18.6 mph with a headwind on the road bike without the aid of a draft is an accomplishment that I should be proud of in and of itself, but…like any speed obsessed cyclist…I was pissed! Why did I hit a wall like that? Why am I on the couch sucking down every bit of carbs I can because my body now feels like absolute hell? Why am I turning my stress release into more stress? Riding my bike is supposed to be what gets me away from that mess, not bring more into my life.

Every now and then, we I need to take a step back and look at our my riding objectively. All I really want is to be in good enough shape that I am healthy, happy and can finish my hardest rides without feeling like I am dead. I am in that kind of shape. I am not in the kind of shape that I can put up times like a CAT 2 roadie and I don’t need to be to run a cycling based website. I do need to keep on enjoying riding my bike.

198 in Pisgah – Image by regularjoe on Flickr