Last Saturday I revisited my inner roadie. For over a year now, this was one side of athletic identity left largely untouched. Although five years old now, my carbon fiber Kestrel Talon is still a great road bike, a joy to ride. Today, I again exercised my bike. These were both actually scheduled days on my training plan for rest.

After so many years of being an aerobic athlete, being on the bike pretty much is rest. Further, getting on the bike, it is tremendous for my sanity. The whitewater center, it has become a place I truly loathe. Being on the water, this part I love. Scott Shipley, he truly did design a world-class facility. This aspect of the facility I truly love. However, having to fight for even basic necessities to gain these moments...moments where quality training can be achieved, this is never ending. This part feels akin to being force fed a caustic pill, and has become tiresome.

Getting on the bike, it was refreshing in it's innate simplicity. There was none of the feeling of loathing in my belly. Rather, after being out there for an hour, it was more a feeling of liberation. It felt wonderful to be out on rolling hills in rural North Carolina on a beautiful fall day. Road bikes are fast, especially on downhills.

This feeling of liberation, the tension of constantly dealing with this uphill battle to train lifting, there was an exact moment when it happened. Coming around a corner on a gentle climb, I crested a hill.

Already in a higher gear, I was carrying decent speed. Stretching out below me was easily a hill a half mile long disappearing around a curve. Flattening my back I switched my grip lower in the drop bars, bent my elbows and assumed an aerodynamic profile as my cadence picked up to easily over 100rpm in the top gear of my bike.

Reaching the fastest cadence I can reasonably maintain, usually just under 140, I stopped pedaling, tucked my knees in against either side of the top tube, and leaned the bike through the turn. It was at this moment, coming around this turn, where I left all the tension behind me. Going through this turn, I rediscovered a very large part of what I love so much about sport, simply being in the moment. In these wonderful moments, there is no future and no past, there is only the now. This is a wonderful thing.