Well , i have to admit something , and it's a little embarrassing - i have been lying to you all......
because lately, I have just not been enjoying riding up hills as much as i have been making out , I'm not sure just when or how it happened but it did. You hear of this kind of thing happening to other people's relationships , and i always thought that the love that hills and I had was just too strong. But I guess after so so many hills on this trip that the thrill just slowly went. When even a 5 hour non-stop slog up a hill over 60 kilometres and 2000 metres elevation does not excite you, you know that something is seriously wrong. When a hill like that poses no challenge what is the point of even getting out of bed.
So anyway I had been living this lie for the past few months , every time I got the top of the hill I would holler and shout and say how "great it was" and "check out that view" and "it's great to be alive" etc etc but the truth was it was all a show , really there had been about as much thrill for me as putting my tongue on a 9V battery.....
I was having what I can also describe as the biggest crisis of my life , especially because i could not see a way out ....... when....... the answer literally entered my mouth in the perfect shape of a prawn (fried in garlic and butter)..... let me explain
For many years i have lived my life by several simple rules - I have only one regarding food and it is to " only eat seafood at restaurants where you can physically see the ocean" ( thus you can guarantee the freshness of the food) ... however several weeks ago i broke this rule and had shrimp at a place that not only could I not see the sea it was in fact so far from the sea that scientists believe that it could be the place that Noah's dove found on olive branch because it was so far from the sea even god couldn't be bothered covering it with water. Anyway it was a long way from the ocean and i did ponder this as i ate those prawns. 3 hours later as i was bowing down to my toilet and re tasting the prawns ( still so delicious) and at that time I had no idea that this would reignite my love for hills.
You see --- when you bike you have to eat to have energy , however if your both your top and bottom holes are purging themselves every 30mins you can't hold on to your energy and suddenly even a minor rise in the road looks like the Swiss alps and the amount of effort to get to the top-- drains you both physically and mentally and dare i say it spiritually , it was like I was seeing mountains for the first time and as what they really are - the spawn of the devil!!! at the the mere sight of them my legs trembled , my heart sank and i fell into pits of despair. I was reminded of times when i was 10 years old and my father would strap a pack on my back (that was twice my size) and make me walk up hills with him only feeding me dry biscuits and rice and calling it a fun..........AND....... he was RIGHT it WAS and IS fun !!! just like those days when i was a wee tacker, my passion for hills was forcefully and unexpectlying reignited over those days of diarrhoea where getting to the top of every hill would have challenged Hercules himself and the thrill of making the top was as genuine a feeling as man can have.
I realised that it wasn't the hills that had changed but it had been ME!!! I had got too strong for them and it doing so had become so proud and horty......... all i can say is that i can´t wait to be an old man and so frail and feeble that even the walk to the letterbox in the morning will represent a physical challenge worth celebrating.
Anyway , we are in Guatemala now and at a Spanish school for a few weeks before moving on
check out andy's blog for lots of photos etc.
Andy
--
"Don't expect people to listen to your advice and ignore your example."
www.andysballbustingadventure.blogspot.com
www.libertytoredemption.wordpress.com
because lately, I have just not been enjoying riding up hills as much as i have been making out , I'm not sure just when or how it happened but it did. You hear of this kind of thing happening to other people's relationships , and i always thought that the love that hills and I had was just too strong. But I guess after so so many hills on this trip that the thrill just slowly went. When even a 5 hour non-stop slog up a hill over 60 kilometres and 2000 metres elevation does not excite you, you know that something is seriously wrong. When a hill like that poses no challenge what is the point of even getting out of bed.
So anyway I had been living this lie for the past few months , every time I got the top of the hill I would holler and shout and say how "great it was" and "check out that view" and "it's great to be alive" etc etc but the truth was it was all a show , really there had been about as much thrill for me as putting my tongue on a 9V battery.....
I was having what I can also describe as the biggest crisis of my life , especially because i could not see a way out ....... when....... the answer literally entered my mouth in the perfect shape of a prawn (fried in garlic and butter)..... let me explain
For many years i have lived my life by several simple rules - I have only one regarding food and it is to " only eat seafood at restaurants where you can physically see the ocean" ( thus you can guarantee the freshness of the food) ... however several weeks ago i broke this rule and had shrimp at a place that not only could I not see the sea it was in fact so far from the sea that scientists believe that it could be the place that Noah's dove found on olive branch because it was so far from the sea even god couldn't be bothered covering it with water. Anyway it was a long way from the ocean and i did ponder this as i ate those prawns. 3 hours later as i was bowing down to my toilet and re tasting the prawns ( still so delicious) and at that time I had no idea that this would reignite my love for hills.
You see --- when you bike you have to eat to have energy , however if your both your top and bottom holes are purging themselves every 30mins you can't hold on to your energy and suddenly even a minor rise in the road looks like the Swiss alps and the amount of effort to get to the top-- drains you both physically and mentally and dare i say it spiritually , it was like I was seeing mountains for the first time and as what they really are - the spawn of the devil!!! at the the mere sight of them my legs trembled , my heart sank and i fell into pits of despair. I was reminded of times when i was 10 years old and my father would strap a pack on my back (that was twice my size) and make me walk up hills with him only feeding me dry biscuits and rice and calling it a fun..........AND....... he was RIGHT it WAS and IS fun !!! just like those days when i was a wee tacker, my passion for hills was forcefully and unexpectlying reignited over those days of diarrhoea where getting to the top of every hill would have challenged Hercules himself and the thrill of making the top was as genuine a feeling as man can have.
I realised that it wasn't the hills that had changed but it had been ME!!! I had got too strong for them and it doing so had become so proud and horty......... all i can say is that i can´t wait to be an old man and so frail and feeble that even the walk to the letterbox in the morning will represent a physical challenge worth celebrating.
Anyway , we are in Guatemala now and at a Spanish school for a few weeks before moving on
check out andy's blog for lots of photos etc.
Andy
--
"Don't expect people to listen to your advice and ignore your example."
www.andysballbustingadventure.blogspot.com
www.libertytoredemption.wordpress.com
