My parents and I get a lot of great talks in together, and eventually a choice few keep getting repeated. One of the regulars that I have started looking forward to is, “are you still bike racing”

They mean well when they say it. The tone has varied over the years. First there’s the general curiosity and novelty on why their kid cares about wearing spandex and sharp tan lines. Then it’s some concern as it’s a lot of time gone riding and coming home with skin rubbed with an asphalt cheese grater. Over time there’s a growing level of exasperation as each year is filled with dreams and promises that always seem to just miss the mark. Moms and Dads are always supportive, but now their kid is a middle aged man that’s very excited about five hundred hours a year of exercise to get beaten by actual talent

me aging a thousand years realizing my racing career is older than the people beating me in races

And blogging about it. My God, this guy is high off of his own supply

This year my Dad patiently listened to my goals for the year and he said something that had a deeper impact than usual. It came from a place of concern after I spent nine months in between jobs and a previous conversation of Big Life Milestones tm. He’s happy to hear the not bike stuff happening. When the topic turned to biking, he jumped in with, “you know, you’re allowed to have other hobbies than biking.”

speaking of hobbies, this is a HEMA messer sword. normally don’t post about it because the practice space is a masonic temple with a NO PICTURES rule but the temple is getting demolished and the practice space is moving sooo expect more words and pictures regarding swords!

First reaction is to get defensive. At first it sounds like, “you can’t have biking as a hobby.” What it really is a reminder that, “make sure the other aspects of your life get enough attention.” Easy to feedback loop biking when it’s what easy to post. Shout out to the handful of photographers in New England that launched bike racing into social media

It makes you wonder if I had a photographer capturing me learning singing or saxophone, the feedback loop would have worked for that. Or if I was part of a book club I’d post more about what I’m reading. Not everything has to get posted. We’re certainly encouraged to keep doing the things we post about

The feeling of that conversations continues to sit with me, enough that it’s still worth posting about it. Originally the thought was to turn that conversation into a twenty look back at my biking races and results with a lessons learned along the way conclusion and rumination with regrets and hopes

But I’m verbose and locquacious and just unbearably long winded as it is. It also completely misses the point. Biking is the only thing I’ve written and posted about. Do I have to write about the other parts of my life? No. Do I want to? Maybe? I won’t know until I try. Who knows where we’ll post when everyone gets sick of the top five apps on their phone

other kinds of weird knowledge that are completely unrelated to biking and have yet to write about are how different cooking temperatures affect the taste of an onion, how to organize relational digital files based off of user behavior, ways to get a crowd energized with a microphone and speakers, and how the structure of snow changes based off of a age, temperature changes, human touch, and weather exposure

However you got here, thank you. While you’re pausing here between where you were and where you’re going, here’s the one lesson I want to share from twenty years of honing the craft:

If the process feels good, keep doing it. You are what you eat. It’s more than just food and calories. Remember to enjoy all the other aspects as well. Cultivating, cooking, hosting, digesting. You are what you eat but you are what you do, and it’s more than you think. If you like it, why wouldn’t you keep doing it?

On that note, expect more writing to come. Eventually I’ll tell all of the bike stories, but they’ll be some other good ones from off the saddle