Thanksgiving. Doing anything meaningful in a group requires negotiation. Who’s gonna make the stuffing? When should we eat? Who’s going to wash the dishes?
If you’re a bike rider, the sort who loves to eat all that food, but also really looks forward to the moment you can escape on your bicycle, there’s another negotiation, sometimes even silent, about when it’s ok for you to take off. In fact, this is a theme of my family life that recurs even on days when we’re not scheduled to pack into my mom’s condo and talk over each other for 4-6 hours.
In trying (and mostly failing) to turn my wife and kids into ardent cyclists, I wonder if what I was trying to do wasn’t the altruism of a guy sharing his passion with those closest to him, but rather a selfish attempt to reduce the amount of negotiating necessary to get out the goddamned door and into the woods. The older I get, the more readily I see my self-interest in the seemingly charitable decisions I make.
They love me, despite myself, thankfully.
I didn’t ride on Thanksgiving this year. I slept in, made a pie, then got to the rest of the cooking, which I enjoyed a lot more than the eating. Maybe some of you can relate.
But now it’s Friday, and all responsibilities to the collective have been dispensed with. Everyone is looking for their escape (I’m realizing here that it seems like we dislike each other and only begrudgingly collect in one place, but what I really mean is that each of us has a thing they like to do to recharge batteries, and each of is eager to do that in the brief and fragile time before we have to go back to the daily grind). I’m gonna ride.
This week’s TCI Friday just wonders how this negotiation goes for you. Are you riding a lot over this long weekend or sacrificing your saddle time to group activities, like watching American football (hand egg), raking leaves, or raucous games of Parcheesi?
I was planning to ride a lot over the long weekend but I got a head cold on Tuesday. So I’m sleeping poorly and counting the days to feeling better instead of riding. Not what I hoped or planned for but I’m still thankful that I’ll get to ride next weekend.
Definitely gonna ride today! Lets go!
Got in 30 miles this morning and definitely at least one more this weekend. My wife will ride too if its not too cold. Thanksgiving morning is for prepping the turkey and helping with other tasks. I’m thankful for many things, not least of which is my wonderful wife who (finally) understands that I need to ride.
I’m sacrificing my riding to pretty lousy weather.
No ride on T-day. Family first and I’m trying to get a deadlined yard project done. Maybe Sunday.
No Thanksgiving ride for me, then work on Friday (hospitals don’t close). A nice ride on Saturday using my eBike despite the temperature being only 35 degrees F. I think that I got in more miles with the help of the eBike than I would have otherwise, but anything more than an hour starts to become physically uncomfortable the closer the temperature is to freezing.