King of the Hills

"All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence." Martin Luther King, Jr.

I am fairly confident that Dr. King was not in reference to indoor cycling with this comment, but I am. And with a generous amount of gratitude and appreciation. The labor that we perform, as we did this morning before the slightest hint of daybreak, has value in its:

1) Dignity and importance, and
2) Need to be undertaken with painstaking excellence.

For if we change a part of the whole, in this case humanity, we have indeed changed the whole. That is our part. Our goal. Our mission. To change us so that we may in turn change the whole. In our practice, that means attention to detail, core integrity, expansion, growth and gratitude. It is the real life metaphor of adding another gear.

We get a little stronger every time we assemble with these values at the forefront of our focus.

It's like doing a 15 mile indoor TT, at first there are doubts, then there is acknowledgement of the reality of what was once a perception (THAT is what 250 watts feels like?), and then there is the commitment to improve, to do whatever is necessary to achieve our objectives, be they race times, run distances, cholesterol control or simply enhancing one's quality of life.

That labor WILL uplift humanity. Further, I believe that it has dignity and importance.

It may be a struggle to get up some mornings at 0430 to make it to class, but please recognize that as the easy part. It's the painstaking excellence that we all need work on.

We'll try it again Wednesday.

Congratulations to Cynthia who, with apparent ease, rode a 45:37 this morning to earn a 2.8 p/Kg ratio. She has now been assigned the 7x400 hill repeats on Thursday night as reward. Those are so hard to perform with dignity. But we will try.

Our best. After all there is a lot at stake.

Pix: A windy, blustery winter night of hill repeats. Old school chalk on the street records the data, and Stephanie transfers to her log book. There was pain in that effort. Thank you Dr. King.