January 15, 2024

Obstacles:

While riding our bike things are always in our way. Our skills as cyclists let us navigate the terrain while avoiding a crash. Simply put we have to learn to deal with bumps and lumps the best we can. I come across obstacles while riding that are barely noticed. Curbs, cracks, rocks, and anything in my way is just there. I've ridden for so long my avoidance techniques are automatic. I'm sure you all realize this too. At some point in your cycling experience whatever is in your path becomes the past very quickly. You get beyond it and it's no concern any longer.
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus ( Born 121AD - Died 180AD) had this to say about obstacles: "Just as nature takes every obstacle, every impediment, and works around it - turns it to its purposes, incorporates it into itself - so, too, a rational being can turn each setback into raw material and use it to achieve its goal."
When I'm out on the trails I go around the rocks, or over them with a carefully timed bunny hop. Taking the smooth line makes the ride feel so much better in my opinion. Some folks like to smash rocks and get all into suspension travel which is cool, but you lose the feel of the trail in a sense when you can't feel the trail. This is a topic that could and should be debated heavily over coffee and bagels. When you become one with your bike obstacles that were previously scary or insurmountable become "easy" or just nothing to worry about. Same as in life. Someone puts an obstacle in front of you, a boss, a co-worker, and bad driver, get around it, and carry on. That's it. Once it's done it's done. You can't change the past but you can control your reaction. As I like to say to the younger riders,"Ride like water and take the best way down the hill, you'll learn." With experience we all come to learn how to ride smoother and with more "flow" without even realizing it. When you get to the end of a ride and you feel the stoke then you have achieved the growth new cyclists don't have yet. This is what it's all about.

Keep riding my friends.

Thanks for reading.

Peace,
Paul