Why Cycle?

Summer cycling has ended. According to Mission Control, the tracking system on my Specialized e-assist bike – I covered almost 385 miles and climbed just over 20,000 feet during the month of August. Since buying this bike last September, I’ve clocked 1,595 miles, and not including the times I forgot to hit “Record”.

Why? I realize that some may wonder why I cycle so much. It’s a valid question I find myself asking as well and I don’t always have a satisfying response.

I suppose on a bike, the breeze in my face, on city streets, rural roads, or trails, I see the world around me in a manner different from either walking or driving. In an odd way, it’s a bit like wandering the foothills of Issaquah Valley on the horses of my childhood.

I also enjoy the camaraderie of other women cyclists, women I ride with through sun and rain, good times and not so good. Each ride is different and never quite what I expected. Case in point, I worried that we’d face high temperatures and possible forest fire smoke during my last organized ride of the summer, the 210-mile ride from Seattle to Vancouver called RSVP. Instead, it rained non-stop, letting up as we crossed into Canada.

I credit cycling for pulling me out of my pandemic slump, from the physical and emotional quagmire I allowed myself to sink into for longer than a healthy lifestyle allows. I had to find a way out, a route back to myself. I knew exercise, for me cycling, was the ticket.

Ten years earlier I had trained with a former work colleague. She was an experienced cyclist, quite the opposite of my newbie status. We were turning sixty within a month of each other and decided to do RSVP to commemorate the occasion. I met that goal head on and rejoiced by suggesting we do it again for our seventieth. “But next time,” I said, “We’ll do it on e-assist bikes.” That was 2014.

I continued to cycle, though not at the same level of intensity, through 2017 when I rode Obliteride, a 100-mile ride to support Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research. Then I hit a wall. I was physically exhausted and simply couldn’t keep up with my friends. Holding them back, feeling like the weak link, was emotionally draining. I stopped cycling but for short neighborhood rides. Then COVID hit.

Jump forward to late 2023. I remembered my comment to my cycling buddies about doing RSVP again, but on e-bikes. I’d been thinking about the e-assist option for several years and finally made the decision to try one, a decision more about admitting the physical limitations of my age than about the expense. It turned out to be the best purchase of my life allowing me to joyously re-enter the world of cycling. It’s a great place to be.