aeblog

Lance tan

I really like to bike. I have a mountain bike as well as a road bike, but recently I have been much more into the road biking. I like it for the exercise, of course, but I also like it for the mind and body experience that it gives me. There is something incredibly powerful about exhausting the body and then keeping on going. There is this purging of something, and the regenerative inflow that follows feels great. You use energy in a big way, but you get more back in return (maybe not right away, but you know what I mean). I don't know how this works physiologically (or even logically for that matter), but this is what I feel, and I don't think I am alone.

Road biking is a very simple activity. I'm not talking about racing or any competitive aspect, just the act of biking. It's repetitive, it's straight-forward, and my favorite, it's rhythmic. When you get a good cadence going it can feel like nothing can stop you from motoring right on up the next hill and cruising down. I used to hate the uphills, but now I love them not only for the challenge they offer, but for the reward on the backside. Last weekend on my way down the eastern side of the Kancamagus Highway in NH, I hit 40 mph for the first time ever. Then I freaked out and settled back to the low thirties. That's pretty fast when you have nothing between you and the speeding pavement but for an aluminum frame, two tires, and a bunch of components that please, please, please will continue to function properly. And I'm really not a very experienced biker, so this felt a bit hairy to me.

I got a bit side tracked here. I wanted to talk about how I write a lot of music while I am biking. Or at least I get lots of ideas. I always carry a piece of paper and a pen to jot them down if my mind gets filled with enough that I'm afraid I'll forget some. I often come up with silly acronyms or mnemonic devices to remember my ideas because I hate stopping to write things down. My competitive side doesn't want to hurt my average speed and I just like the uninterrupted flow. So I get this little battle going in my head. How many ideas can I remember until the fear of forgetting overcomes the desire to just keep on going? Usually it's three or four. Sometimes I even chant them as I go, and strangely, I secretly hope that I won't think of anything new because if I do the balance will be tipped towards stopping. I don't know what the logic is, but to me it is much much much worse to get an idea and forget it than to never get it in the first place. Perhaps I feel that all I am doing is postponing the idea and that therefore it will come out at some later time (when I can write it down easily!) whereas if it comes out now and I subsequently forget it, poof! it's gone forever. And my brain doesn't forgive me for that very easily.

I'm not sure why biking is conducive to me getting music ideas. Perhaps the rhythm and repetition has something to do with it, or maybe it's just that this is a strangely relaxing time for my mind and therefore I am open to ideas. Or perhaps it's that my over-active brain just won't sit still and insists on thinking about something at all times and since the biking doesn't take much thought, music is the natural exciting thing for me to contemplate.

Of course, I don't always think about music. When I get really tired, my brain doesn't want to think much at all. At that point, the trick to keep oneself pushing onward, I have found, is to fool the brain into thinking about something, anything, other than one's burning thighs. Sometimes I create simple little math problems, usually involving my bike computer, to perform this distraction. At what mileage will I be four fifths of the way back home? How far do I have to go in an hour and forty five minutes to have an average speed of 20mph? If I am traveling at a constant rate of 25 mph on a flat, what power output will my legs need to generate in order to not fall below 12 mph on my climb up the upcoming 9 percent grade, 3 mile long hill in terms of q, the coefficient of friction between the road surface and my tires? OK, that last one is a joke, but it works remarkably well especially given that even the simplest problems (I'm talking basic arithmetic here!) become quite challenging in this state of exhaustion. Try it if you don't believe me!

Now that I have spouted on about biking so much, I figure this is a good opportunity to discuss the 'Lance tan'. Now I'm pretty sure I made this up, though I might not have been the first to do so. Either way, I like the term. What does it mean, you ask? I'm not going to burden you with a picture of my own stellar example, but essentially the Lance tan is what some less hip individuals might call a 'farmer tan', though there is the requirement of equally well-defined lines on ones arms, neck AND legs. I figured that a) I'm not a farmer, so I can't have a farmer tan, b) Lance is really cool and all women think he is sexy, so why not take advantage of that? and c) I truly do have this sort of tan from biking a lot. So there. I'm proud of my Lance tan and no one will ever make fun of me again!