Ironman Boulder 2015

I love to ride most every chance I get. And rides can become habit forming. Every now and again, I will get the opportunity to go out on a completely new ride. Explore. Not sure how many miles it will be or how long it will take.  This pure sense of freedom is what draws all of us to ride. Road or no road, you are limited only by your imagination.

Most days there is a schedule. And if I am going to get in a ride, I have to make it fit in to the schedule. Depending on how early I get out of bed, I have one or two predetermined routes that I know will fit into the schedule.

This past Sunday, my morning was totally free. It was also Boulder Ironman Sunday. And there was a spot not far from the house where I could sit and watch the bike leg. Instead of using my imagination, I went into habit mode. I had two hours to get to the one spot on course where I wanted to watch the first few leaders come through. There were just a few routes I knew I could take to get to that one spot on the 112 mile course.

But I could not get out of my own way. I just had to travel along, what I knew in the back of my mind was, the race route. I rode along side the rest of the triathletes for my fitness ride, while there were in the race of their life. As an athlete, I should of understood that. And I was being a complete dick.

I ducked in and out of the race along my ride, trying to get to the one spot to watch. I finally tried to continue along my route when a police officer stopped me from entering the race route. While trying to figure out which route to take, (a simple left or right) he almost knocked me over because I could not imagine taking another well traveled road. I could not get out of my own way.

There are so many times in life where we get caught up in our usual routes, what we usually drink, what we usually eat, what we see to be fact. We just need to get out of our way and go for a ride. With that pure sense of freedom. So that we can discover something new for ourselves.

Where can you ride tomorrow? What can you eat tomorrow that will nourish you? I am going to make some bacon & cashew rice cakes that will nourish me on my ride, wherever it takes me.