Biking and Life

Biking. Love it. Being hit by a car, or ‘wiping out’ on gravel, not so much.

However, let’s focus on the positive!

After some time with the nurse...

The swelling was massive!

Why do I enjoy biking?

What has biking taught me?

Because it keeps me moving, it keeps my heart, lungs and muscles working, it gets my lymphatic system pumping. In other words, it keeps me fit. It also helps that it burns off calories and allows the consumption of more cake—guilt free!

I also enjoy the freedom of biking. I love that I can get out early and bike across town, powered by nothing more than my own body. I love the sound of the birds. I love the quiet of the roads while the rest of the city sleeps. I love
watching the dawn as I stand at the shore of the ocean. I love the few hills I tackle on the way home. I love the way I can push myself hard on the final ten kilometres. I love the feeling of getting home with ‘nothing left in the tank’.

Biking has taught me that I get out of the ride what I put in to the ride. Like life, the more I give, the more I get. The more I devote myself to my path, the more I get back from life. The harder I work on myself, the more I gain. 

Just like a long bike ride, I will cover more distance if I just keep pedaling—in fact there are many rides where I have given all I had to give and all I can do is tell myself ‘Just keep pedalling.’ As with life, when we feel we have given all we had to give, just keep breathing, just keep taking one step after another. We have more within us that we realise, and only when pushed do we discover this.

Too often people quit while they are still comfortable within their safety zone. That is not how growth happens. Growth happens outside our comfort zone.

Boundaries are only ever as far back as we have pushed them. Why not push them back further.

Sometimes we face challenges in life, something that knocks us back, We have a choice in how to respond. For me, after the gravel ‘wipe out’ I took time to heal, to nurture myself, to be aware of how my body was feeling, so that I felt the strength coming back. I was aware of the pain and weakness in my body, and aware of the easing of the pain and the returning strength. I learnt a lot about my body. 

*******

After the gravel 'wipe out' I had a massive swelling on the side of my leg. Within hours the bruising started, and over the next days and weeks I catalogued the development of the bruising It was so impressive I did a post on facebook 'Fifty Shades of Bruising'.

There was a stretch of concrete along the road, I don't really know why, perhaps to drain away water when it rained. Whatever the reason, I think the last picture shows that that was what I slammed down on, because I had a nice line along the leg! 

When I got hit by the car (two months before the gravel 'wipe out') I did not have any visible injuries, just severe muscle sprains and I could not use my hand or move my shoulder and was limping around.

You can see where I hit that stretch of concrete on the road...