A Great Canadian Cycling Trip... In My Basement

With the cool weather here, Indoor Track and Field practice in full swing and a multitude of other commitments (most of which I am looking forward to), it has once again become time to set up my basement cycling track. This will allow me to get some exercise during the in-between moments when I cannot get outside. There are a number of challenges inherent in trying to train this way, the least of which is not BOREDOM.

So it was with a sense of satisfaction in knowing I had made the conscious effort to pace my return to the roads, that I made my way down to the basement this morning for a self-actualized ride around the basement. "Basement cycling" is certainly not as easy as it appears, especially when the scenery is lacking (see pic to right for the scenic view from my cycle seat)... which is where visualizing, whether by reading or listening to music, comes into play, as it did today.

During my ride I got into both the most current issue of Outside magazine and a the first chapter of The Farley Mowat Reader, both of which provided excellent fodder for visualization..

In the end, the twenty minute ride did not "feel" like twenty, or even ten minutes, thanks in no small part to the small "movie" (like in the image to the left at the top of the post) that was playing in my head, prompted by the pretty pictures and an anecdote by Farley about growing up in rural North... ahhh, the joys of bicycling along an imaginary Canadian riverside!