Purposeful Rides

Riding with a purpose is good for me.  Specifically, riding to get somewhere - a particular destination - provides me with many rewards.  A target to motivate me, an achievement to savour, new, previously undiscovered roads, and the delights of the ride: all these things enthuse me.  Mine may be small achievements but they make me feel good about myself. 

Paul musters his riders

My husband ran one of his mountain bike events this last weekend, based at Talybont on Usk, just south of Brecon in South Wales.  On similar trips in the past I discovered bit by bit that mountain biking wasn’t for me.  Time after time as I watched those around me have terrific fun on tricky descents I simultaneously came face to face with what seemed to be my inadequacies, as I saw those same descents as downright dangerous.  I allowed myself to get down about it, feeling like a failure.

But that’s not a fair reflection.  Each of us has strengths and weaknesses.  We can’t all be good at everything and we would be foolish to forget that.  For me, trying to be an effective mountain biker was never going to work and beating myself up about it is as pointless as it is self-destructive. 

Cycle touring, in even the broadest sense, is where my cycling heart lies.  To get from one place to another under my own steam feels good and it has a purpose for me which seems to fit my personal philosophy.  Two weeks cycling through Scotland, panniers loaded with all we need, is cycle touring.  But so too is a one-direction ride starting in one place and finishing somewhere else, carrying only the days’ requirements.  Riding a circuit, starting and finishing at home, doesn’t quite have that sense of purpose - though obviously it can also be great fun. 

So I rode from our home to Talybont, my husband taking a bag for me in the van before he met up with his group for a mountain bike circuit.  For the remainder of the weekend, I provided van-based support for his tour. 

My husband also does challenge rides; his recent rides have finished in Corwen and Bala.  So I have ridden to Corwen and Bala to meet him at the finishes.  His needs are met, my needs are met, we both feel we’ve accomplished something and we both finish smiling. 

Now I’m looking for every opportunity for purposeful rides.  They are challenges to fit my size and they give me a buzz I need. 

Pen y Fan