Sep 2010
This is the last post of my small series on Things I learned while riding my recumbent on it's first trip. I was offline the last week so this post is later than anticipated.
In the previous posts I focused more on the actual part of doing the trip. This is something I realized about my planning and finally coming to do it: Don't listen to people telling you it's hard or impossible. Before I started my trip I talked to several people about riding the distance. Most of them do have quite some experience cycling. All of them voiced serious concerns I'd be able to do this without serious training. I didn't listen to them. Simply because none of them had ever ridden a recumbent and they are made for long distance trips.
We like to listen to other people on advice when we set out to do certain things. However many times their opinion might not be useful to us, simply because they are not doing what we want to do. When I returned to Vienna one of the first books I read was the art of being minimalist by Everett Bogue. He puts this point very strongly stating: "Don't listen to anyone". I'd say only listen to people who have experience in what you are trying to do. I've always learned from people around me. Nevertheless don't let them stop you pursuing your dreams.
Yesterday I picked up my new bike, a recumbent made by AZUB in Uhersky Brod (map). When I was there to testride and ordered the bike I made the decision to ride the bike home. It was a 150km trip trough the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria. It took me 8h 45 minutes to arrive back in Vienna. A couple of things got clear to me while riding the bike and I decided to blog about. However, since I dislike the classic 7 Things you need to know about ..., 12 Ways to ... posts (they seem to be popular though), I decided to make this into a miniseries, elaborating a little longer on each point. The following posts will cover:
Another post in my small series of concepts I understood while riding my recumbent. This one is simple as well, though too often we don't apply it ourselves.
To those who haven't done it: Riding a recumbent is different from riding an upright bike. You have to learn riding again. So before I bought my recumbent, I went to the Azub shop and test rode one. They showed me how to ride it. One month later I went to pick up my bike. I didn't train for a 150km ride, which some of the people I told my plan to thought of crazy. And the beginning was hard. It's a new way of riding and you have to get used to the positioning and the fact that you can't use your bodys weight pedaling. So I noticed something I never had noticed on my other bike: Muscular warm up. I still notice it when I ride my recumbent. It takes about 30-45 minutes for my muscles to fully warm up. During that period you slowly increase the force your muscles can produce. Thus after riding for about 1-2 hours, riding starts to feel much better. Indeed I finished riding after 8 hours in a higher gear than I started.
This is analogous to many things in life. To improve you have to start, and when you're at it you will get better. Last week I met a friend of mine She's at the end of her university education. She already works in several jobs for the last year instead of writing her masters thesis. While we talked she mentioned that she never had thought she could do so many practical things. But having to do them, she could.
I believe most of the time when we are put to something new, something that pushes our borders, we adapt and we can do it. The only thing that keeps us back is our fear of failure. Our lizard brain (as Seth Godin describes it in Linchpin). So dump fear, start doing.
After a longer break (no pun intended) of not blogging, I finally find the motivation to write the third small entry on things I understood riding my recumbent from Uhersky Brod to Vienna
When I was riding, the first 4 hours felt easily. I kept on flying down the roads with ease. However soon after this my position would become uncomfortable. So I decided to stop and have a break and some food (late lunch, somehow riding prevents me from being hungry). After a break of 15 minutes or so I was refreshed and could go on easily for a while. However another 2 hours later or so I was uncomfortable again and started feeling the drag. Another short break solved this and I rode again.
This seems to be something I'd say is obvious and every kid knows this. However during my last two years doing research, I barely took any weekend off. My job was at least 10 hours a day, 7 days a week. I know many people there living on the same schedule. This wore me out, and after a while not even the occasional day off can re-energize you to go on fully. This resulted in a terrible drag. I've started taking time for myself and slowly I start to be more creative and productive during my work time again. I make less mistakes and make time I spend count more. Overall I feel I'm doing better now than when I did 7 days a week.
So allow yourself to take breaks, it will make your work better