By James Durand
These days when you say the word social, many of us think of Facebook, Instagram, or whatever other media source is the flavour of the week.
With COVID, the last three years has made this even more prominent as we avoided human contact at what seems like any cost.
This morning I was planning a quick and punishing ride to get my training back on track.
I have a big event to ride in June and if I don’t get moving, June is going to sneak up on me quickly and this big ride will be nothing more than a full day of pain and suffering.
My first thought was to go ride solo and do only what I need to do. Push hard on the climbs, recover on the downs and then hit a few hard climbs again. Within an hour of two, I’d have a great workout under my belt and be back at work. It wouldn’t be much fun, but very efficient.
Then I thought about it for a minute and remembered why I ride. It’s fun and it’s social. I like to ride with friends, I like the mid ride breaks where we BS about anything and everything, and for most of my life, this is where my entire social network has been created. No, not on my phone, but actually face to face. Sounds weird these days doesn’t it?
As I was getting my gear together to go punish myself for a couple of hours, Rhyley asked where I was going, and it hit me.
I can ride solo almost any time and she can scroll through the web all day every day if she needs to, but the opportunities to socialize with actual people are few and far between these days, so we loaded up my bike and her bike, headed to Radar Hill and had a really fun ride, and a great visit.
It was slower than planned and I didn’t get my training goals covered, but when June rolls around, maybe I’ll ride slower and hang out with my buddies a bit longer. Because that sounds way more fun than racing doesn’t it? And who am I kidding, I’m way too old to win anything these days anyway.
Next time you’re thinking of riding some Zwift ride “with your friends,” or scanning the ‘Gram to catch up on the goings on in your community, maybe call a friend instead, grab some bikes and get out for a fun SOCIAL ride. You know, like back in the day.
I’m James Durand and I’m Goin’ Ridin’, with other humans…