{"id":82874,"date":"2025-08-20T04:56:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T04:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/82874\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T04:56:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T04:56:09","slug":"why-do-i-ride-existential-thoughts-from-the-saddle-at-37c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/82874\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Do I Ride?: Existential Thoughts from the Saddle at 37\u00b0C"},"content":{"rendered":"

And yet\u2026 here you are. Riding. Uphill.<\/p>\n

And somewhere around kilometre 64, as your heart rate flirts with illegal levels and your sunglasses start sliding off your face, a question emerges from the heat haze:<\/p>\n

Why do I ride?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just a passing thought. It\u2019s a full-blown existential reckoning, brought to you by dehydration, fatigue, and the moment your tire makes a strange hissing noise but you\u2019re too tired to care.<\/p>\n

This is that journey. Not just a climb, but a philosophical crawl through every reason, excuse, and delusion that propels us to ride when we could be literally anywhere else. Like the shade. Or a cold bath. Or inside an air-conditioned supermarket pretending to shop while standing in front of the freezer section.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s unpack it, one heatstroke hallucination at a time.<\/p>\n

1. Is this suffering\u2026 fun?<\/p>\n

The first wave of introspection usually begins when your body stops producing sweat and starts producing questions. Namely:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if I just lay down right here?\u201d
\n\u201cHow is this better than brunch?\u201d
\n\u201cIf my lungs fall out, do I still count the ride?\u201d<\/p>\n

Somewhere deep down, you suspect you\u2019re doing this on purpose. That there\u2019s a twisted joy in the burn, the struggle, the fact that your shadow is literally wobbling from exhaustion.<\/p>\n

Fun? No. But meaningful? Maybe. Maybe that\u2019s the same thing.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>What if I just lay down right here? \u00a9 Profimedia
\n2. What am I running from?<\/p>\n

You left home this morning to \u201cclear your head.\u201d But now you\u2019re 70 minutes in, 200 metres up, and your head is filled with screaming and a weird craving for citrus.<\/p>\n

So what exactly are you clearing?<\/p>\n

Deadlines?
\nThat thing your boss said?
\nThe fact that your life is just an endless cycle of working, pedalling, eating questionable carbs, and Googling \u201chow to make friends as an adult\u201d?<\/p>\n

At some point, the ride becomes an emotional cleanse. Like therapy, but with chafing.<\/p>\n

3. Is this who I am now?<\/p>\n

You remember a time, vaguely, when your weekends involved brunch, museums, or lying horizontally without guilt. Now you wake up at 6:00am to eat oatmeal and put on padded shorts.<\/p>\n

You used to have hobbies. Now you have a Wattbike subscription.<\/p>\n

Is this adulthood? Is this freedom?
Or are you just cosplaying as someone who \u201cloves hills\u201d?<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t worry \u2014 the next descent will distract you from this identity crisis. Until the next one.<\/p>\n

4. Would I be happier if I just bought a convertible?<\/p>\n

Midway through a heatwave hill climb, you may begin comparing the cost-benefit ratio of your hobby to other ways people spend obscene amounts of money chasing joy.<\/p>\n

Example:<\/p>\n

Road bike: \u20ac3,200
\nKit: \u20ac300
\nSuffering: \u221e
\nSense of superiority over people driving to the gym: priceless\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, as your tires squeak over melting tarmac, it\u2019s hard not to fantasise about wind in your hair, seats that cool your butt, and not having to eat energy gels that taste like regret.<\/p>\n

5. Is this ride a metaphor?<\/p>\n

The climb, the struggle, the unbearable heat\u2026 it starts to feel like something more. Something symbolic.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re pushing forward, one crank at a time, even when it hurts. Is this\u2026 life? Resilience? Late-stage capitalism?<\/p>\n

You tell yourself it\u2019s about grit. Or growth. Or proving to your ex that you can in fact commit to something longer than three months.<\/p>\n

You wipe the sweat from your eyes and whisper, \u201cI am the hill.\u201d<\/p>\n

6. What if no one sees my Strava?<\/p>\n

You check your Garmin<\/a> again. No signal. Your phone is dead. And suddenly, it hits: What if this ride doesn\u2019t exist digitally?<\/p>\n

Did it happen?<\/p>\n

Will the suffering be acknowledged?<\/p>\n

Will anyone see your heart rate zones and validate your pain?<\/p>\n

You spiral briefly until you remember, you can manually upload it later. But the moment has passed, and you question how deep your sense of purpose is if it\u2019s built on kudos.<\/p>\n

7. Am I free\u2026 or just addicted to suffering in lycra?<\/p>\n

Somewhere past kilometre 80, the philosophical haze lifts for a second. You ask yourself plainly:<\/p>\n

Do I love cycling?
\nOr do I love who I am when I cycle?
\nOr do I just not know what else to do with my body and time anymore?<\/p>\n

And then you hit a gust of hot wind and forget everything except the fact that your jersey is now indistinguishable from your skin.<\/p>\n

The real reason?<\/p>\n

Why do you ride?<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll say it\u2019s for fitness. Freedom. Sanity. Community. Adventure.<\/p>\n

But if we\u2019re honest?<\/p>\n

You ride because there\u2019s magic in it.
Because pain has poetry.
Because no one can find you on a hill except yourself.<\/p>\n

And sometimes, because it\u2019s just too hot to think of anything better to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"And yet\u2026 here you are. Riding. Uphill. And somewhere around kilometre 64, as your heart rate flirts with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-82874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}