Today was a beautiful 80 mile ride day through Ohio, on rural roads, light traffic, low humidity, and ok, we did have a headwind, but that was just a wonderful cooling breeze as far as I was concerned, although there was a great deal of whining about it from the other riders that came in after me. Today is a blog about consistency.
All my life I have gotten to where I am going, by consistency. What is phenomenally disappointing is the amount of jealousy and resentment that this has caused in so many people. Riding across America has just been a repeating story-within-a-story of what I have experienced my whole life. We have been riding on this 3500 mile ride for over seven weeks now, and the whining and complaining (jealousy) about my "speed" and "how fast I am" is just ludicrous. First of all I am riding the heaviest bike of all riders on the entire ride - the one and only mountain bike. Most people's entire bicycle weigh less than my front RockShox fork weighs! Try pushing that up the Rocky Mountains! Secondly I am a chronically weight challenged, middle-age grandfather of three. Come on people, look at the facts here!
Today is a perfect example of most days out on the route. I start off slow and steady to get my old bones warmed up and the blood flowing (which seems to take longer each and every day!). I am often at the end of the long line of riders, but sometimes I start in the middle and occasional near the front. But today is the example we are using - I started 12th out of 29 riders. At the end of 10 miles I was 9th out of 29 riders. By the time we reached the first rest stop at the 20 mile marker I was 7th out of 26 riders (because we had 3 drop out for the day at this point) By the time we reached the second rest stop at the 40 mile marker I was 4th out of 26 riders. By the time we reach the third rest stop at the 60 mile marker I was 2nd. And then at the end of the 80 mile ride I was first. Typical day. I was as surprised as always. It is called consistency, faithfulness, stubbornness, grit, focus, tenacity, determination, luck or stupidity - depending on what your point of view is and what kind of person you want to be.
Every single person can choose to ride at the exact same speed as me. They ALL have better equipment, they all have the same tools or better, many of them have youth on their side as well, and they all have excuses. I wonder what would happen if I did not stop to take pictures along the way?? My one and only point here is that consistency can produce astonishing and unexpected results over and over again. It is the story of my life. Try it and don't waver, and be amazed.
