For the last two years, I've been a pretty casual rider - mostly to and from work, trucking along on my Specialized Hybrid, and the occasional longer haul along the bike trails in my city.
I don't think I ever got into 'The Zone' before on that bike.
Then this year, my interest in cycling has increased, I've joined up with a charity bike ride going from Toronto to Montreal, and been attending the weekly training rides for the past month.
I got a new bike, and been tweaking it here and there each week as the paycheck comes in (I'm also realizing what a money-pit Cycling /can/ be if you let it
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This week was the first week that I went for a ride after putting on road tires (had cyclocross fat-stubby tires), clip less pedals and getting shoes. Riding 40km on Converse All-Stars was not the most comfortable thing.
I also made a point to travel much lighter this week - leaving the bulky Kyptonite lock at home.
I didn't think these small changes would make a huge difference, but as the ride got rolling along I was impressed with how much easier, and more responsive everything felt. I could get cruising along to higher speeds and maintain my pace with ease. My biked seemed to fly along instead of getting pushed along.
On a long stretch of city street before we got out of the traffic-light stop/start annoyances, I lucked out and got a series of greens and was picking up a nice speed and maintaining it. This is when I started to slip into a 'zone', I almost didn't feel my legs - they pushed along effortlessly, I'd glance down at my cycle computer now and then and notice that my speed was increasing higher than it has in the past, and my perceived effort of maintaining 25-30km/h seemed to be far less then the previous week of having to push to break 20km/h.
As I'm approaching a part of the road splitting, my GPS map isn't being clear on which way to go to stick on route, and I veer to the right instead of taking a left, get a few meters and realize I've made a wrong choice.
I back-track to the split in the road, and figure now would be a good time to peel off a layer, take a quick snack out of my bag, and have a sip of Gatorade instead of water.
I rest for a few minutes, get back on my bike and go to peddle, and suddenly I can feel my legs again - and biking now felt like an effort.
It took me a bit longer to get back into that space again, but once you reach there - it is rather satisfying
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