Marion Freijsen A blog about Sports, Fitness & Health

Big bike ride

I have said it a hundred times, and I’ll say it again – I love the summer. In fact, I love THIS summer in particular, although I will probably claim the same sentiment next year and have done so the past years too…  This summer is special, simply because it is NOW.

Training gives you focus – and focus means you can seriously enjoy the moment. Have you noticed how often we are told at the moment that you “should be IN the moment”? It seems the new mantra for all those people out there trying to get you to be better about living your life – and selling you a self-help book in the process. However, it’s worth trying to focus all your energy on one thing at a time once in a while, rather then running all over the place doing 100 things moderately to simply badly.

So yesterday, with this in mind, I went out on my bike. I just wanted to enjoy one day by riding around from early morning to late afternoon and it was superb. During the millenium year, I did the same – apart from the fact that I started on the 29th November 1999 and kept it going to December 14th 2000 – cycling half the world. And you know what I loved about that more then anything? The fact that the only care you have when you are on a trip like that is where you will put down your head to rest that night and what you will eat. Very basic, simple issues that can be answered by stopping anywhere you want as long as the stores are still open for business to provide you with your dinner. That’s the feeling I recreated yesterday by taking off on my bike, simply meandering along different trails, no fixed ideas bar whether I liked my surroundings and the eagerness and pleasure of seeing what was around the next corner. I cycled for a few hours, sat down by a secluded lake in the midst of the forest to eat my lunch and went with the sun as it sat in the west to get home again. How beautifully simple life can be.

Music for this ride: “Gone”  – Kelly Clarkson