People that grew up with my find it very hard to believe that I have started this obsession with cycling. After all I am a bigger guy, I have always loved the rush you get from high impact sports. Football, baseball, fighting... There is a rush there when you know you have trained, you have put in the time, the hard work and its time to put it all on the line and find out if your best, is better than the next persons.
In football the competition was to die for, but what truly got me was playing linebacker, studying the offense, their tendencies and knowing, on third and short, on the right hash of the field there is a 85 percent chance that when the right side is overloaded the other team is going to run a lead through your gap, and your one job is to blow the fullback up, there is about 5 feet in between the guard and the tackle, that is where the ball is going and it is your sole responsibility to BLOW IT UP. There are very few things that can compare.
I mentioned in the past that I played college baseball, I really dove deep into the mental side which made things quite a bit more complicated, but at the end of the day as a "hitter" it was you versus the pitcher. Sure there were situations, a runner on first and your coach calls a hit and run, it is your job to to preferably hit the ball to the right side HARD. There is one out and a runner on third base, it is your responsibility to hit something deep to score him, but at the end of the day it is YOU, taking all the batting practice, all the tee work, all the cage work. All the keeping your weight, and hands back, keeping your elbows in. It is you that looks the pitcher in the eye and says "my best is better than your best" now bring it!
This is the same in cycling but even better, like anything else there are situations. Is he more "fit" than I am, is he lighter than I am? Can he climb better than me? Is his bike better than mine? But by the end it is still a competition.
What I have found I love about cycling most is taking everything in, the wind, the hills, the elevation, your team... when you are out on the road competing what it all comes down to is who can suffer the most. I realize your body has a lactate threshold and at a certain Heart rate you really start to break down, but it is so much more than that. It is seeing the person, or group that is a quarter of a mile ahead of you and saying "you will not beat me" training is very important, a person can't just go out click into their pedals and out perform you, but when the training is similar and it is down to the wire I can promise you I WILL SUFFER. It is a team sport and there is so much strategy involved but its the strategy, plus the will power, and the ability to not give up that makes someone amazing. Its not the bike, or the gear, or the technology it is the perseverance to simply not quit and challenge not only the other person but also yourself.
I haven't been doing this long but I love the competition, and I CANNOT wait to see what kind of challenges are ahead of me.
Good stuff, brutha!!
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