Life On Two Wheels

Along the river and toward the mountains a morning shadow shimmers across the road. The rays of the first light jet through the trees and across a figure gliding upon the road. His breath trails in short spurts, petrified as it hits the icy air. All is quiet except the slight sound of the athlete as he summons himself for yet another days work. Soon the rest of the world will bustle with life as well and the brief simplicity of cyclist and nature will disappear into the everyday struggle of life in full motion; the errands and intervals, the appointments and intersections, and the deadlines and finish lines OutPaceTheRace

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Spanish protocol

Girona, ESP
Sunday, June 11, 2006

I’m back in Girona, seems there’s a festival of sorts taking place here? Of course that’s just an assumption ‘cause traditionally Sundays are pretty dead. But today as I left for my ride around 2:30 the day was exceptionally lifeless. There was a banner hanging that said something in Spanish coming into town so I kinda figured that the day was indeed scheduled for even a later start than usual- perhaps around 11:00pm? Nonetheless, I’m not on there time zone anyway. I’ve been so messed up over the whole time thing in the last couple days that I’ve began to mold my own little world of time. You’ve got NW time, East Coast time, Siesta time, & then French time. Of course France and Spain are technically on the same time, but Spain has a different, uhhh… protocol… This brings up an important point though… time. Time’s the most important measure. What would you do without it, every single thing that we do revolves around a moment here and a moment there. How long does it take to drink that water, or how do you know when you’re hungry (perhaps the amount of time it takes for you to digest your food, or you’re nervous because something’s taking too long?), what could you’ve done during that minute you were doing the other thing. Do you rate what you do on the amount of time it takes you to do what you’ll be doing? In the end time is just time, perhaps the most important measure, but one of which you are free to spend as you please.
Today I spent my time sleeping until 11:00. I didn’t end up getting to bed last night until late, so I slept in Spanish style. Then I ate lunch for breakfast again and headed out for an easy 3 hour ride. I’ve got two days back in Girona until departing for Route de Sud (on the French side of the Pyrenees). After that it’s back home to the US for a week before Fitchburg.