This blog belongs to and is written by me, Andy Skeen. I live in Winfield, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago. A fairly affluent town smaller than but similar in composition to Wheaton, Naperville and the like. Great place to raise kids, great place to grow up, terrible place to live between the ages of 18 and 25.
I'm a recent graduate of the University of Illinois, majoring in Ecology, to spare you the longer version of the actual major. I wasn't your typical college student in some ways, and still find myself floating on the edge of post-graduation normality. I've purchased my own car, I still live in the same town where I've lived for 20 years, and get along moderately well with my parents. The difference is that I haven't "let myself go" so to speak, like many college kids do their first year in college. I'm not going to use this blog to pump myself up into something I'm not, because, well, I know exactly how good I am not.
I still have some degree of fitness, and while I might not have that murderous strength of upper body or lower body explosiveness that many high school athletes possess, I have something going for me. I can ride a bike sufficiently well to have earned my way to the Pro/1/2 ranks; specifically Category 2 at the moment. Simply put, I'm pack fodder amongst Professional and semi-pro (guys who get free bikes, clothing, race fees, etc., in my mind) and will be treated as such until I'm able to score upgrade points or prove myself to possess some value other than contributing to the prize list.
So, in order to make something of myself while curing the incredible boredom that dominates life in its current state, I'm going to ride my various bikes as hard as I can. Hemmingway said that the best way to see the country is by throwing a leg over a top tube, and seeing it with your ass planted on a bike.
"It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle."
- Ernest Hemingway
- Ernest Hemingway
If I haven't hinted at it enough, I'm going to ride my bike all around the local roads, seeing everything I can, two, three or four hours at a time. Take it down to SoIL and IN, ride with friends still in school, and do races in places I haven't been before. When I ran (oh...yeah, I ran track and CC in high school, and track for a year in college) there was a book that was, and still is, particularly popular with high school runners called "Once a Runner". One of the quotes, of several, that has stuck with me through the years reflects my basic philosophy about sports, school, work, and just about anything in life. John L. Parker, through his character Quenton Cassidy states:
"And too there were questions: What did he eat? Did he believe in isometrics? Isotonics? Ice and heat? How about aerobics, est, ESP, STP? What did he have to say about yoga, yogurt, Yogi Berra? What was his pulse rate, his blood pressure, his time for the 100-yard dash? What was the secret, they wanted to know; in a thousand different ways they wanted to know The Secret. And not one of them was prepared, truly prepared to believe that it had not so much to do with chemicals and zippy mental tricks as with that most unprofound and sometimes heart-rending process of removing, molecule by molecule, the very tough rubber that comprised the bottoms of his training shoes. The Trial of Miles, Miles of Trials. How could they be expected to understand that?"
Simply put, what Parker, through his muse Quenton Cassidy, is trying to say is that it simply comes down to time, and effort. It comes down to turning those pedals over, thousands of times a day. Wearing down and replacing chains, cassettes and tires. Simply wearing these things down and replacing them while breaking down and rebuilding yourself in the shape you desire. I'm not a huge techno-weenie like some of my friends; I don't have the latest and greatest components, and I don't analyze every ride's data point by point. I ride my bike hard when I can, and rest when I feel necessary, and repeat that process in order to mold myself into the athlete I want to be in the future.
But, it's late, and we'll get to that stuff at another date.
