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| Tangerine Dream at rest London, ON June 2024 This photo originally shared on Instagram |
Pausing in this way does nothing to boost my performance data, but I learned long ago that cycling, for me at least, shouldn’t be a process based on strictly chasing numbers.
So I go the other way, stopping to smell the flowers or, in this case, to watch the river flow under a bridge I haven’t visited in a while. On this breezy Sunday morning, I listen intently to the rustling leaves, and watch an angry goose squawking away on the far bank. I also take some weird pictures of my surroundings, and my newly rained-on bike. Just because.
I have a Garmin computer on the handlebars that tracks my rides. Speeds, distances, paces, routes, all that stuff that I could probably share on Strava if I cared enough to do so. I like having it, as it motivates me to keep pedalling when I’d otherwise be ready to call it a day.
What that Garmin can’t capture is the feeling I get when the wind blows in my face, or the weird sense of control I have as I roll into a curve, then mash the pedals as I exit the other side. It doesn’t smell the flowers, either, nor does it have a goose setting.
On this day, because I’ve been stopping at all the spots that pop into my mind, the data that the Garmin does capture is, to be blunt, laughable. I suppose I could ride harder tomorrow, and my numbers would be less embarrassing to share.
But I won’t share those, either, because I’ll remember the things I see and hear and feel, and the conversations I have on the path with fellow cyclists far longer than I’ll ever remember what our bike computers were programmed to share with us.
I’ll never win any Strava King/Queen of the Mountain or Course Record trophies. I’d like to think I’m playing a very different game these days, and hope we get to chat about it on a ride sometime. I’ll be the guy on the orange bike. Maybe we’ll see a goose.
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