The best part of riding bikes are the brief encounters riders have with 'flow'. Anyone who has experienced 'flow' on a bike knows it when the've experienced it. They are often the people on the group rides with the biggest smiles on their faces, and the riders who want to ride for longer than the rest..but only on that particular day.
Flow can be on both road and mountain bikes, although it seems to be most rewarding when on a MTB bike. The feeling of loose hands, relaxed legs, and crazy speeds. Flow is where the bike does the thinking and your simply along for the ride.
Long after I hang up my racing bike I think(I hope) I will ride as much as I do now. Not for training or building or fitness(maybe a bit of everything) but mainly for the quest to experience 'flow'. Once you've found it, it keeps you looking for more. Like a bad drug or a good girl.
I've been riding a little bit this week in hopes of finding my flow again. Although I haven't ridden the 'ol MTB much this year, I can feel the suppleness coming back but its still not there. I haven't ridden the trail where it felt like silk. Most of my rides I'm still powering through the roots, which isn't what I'm looking for.
The funny thing is.. finding flow is like trying to go to sleep. The instant you try hard to go to sleep is when your the furthest away from sleeping. The instant when your mind goes to something else and relaxes and you forget why your lying in bed. This is when sleep takes over. The body has a mind of its own, and one of the hardest parts of life that I'm learning is that sometimes you have to allow it to take over.
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