Being - system(less) - for a while

Inspired today by some heart-led dialogue and sharing of energies, I'm prompted to write and share the article below, I wrote in late 2023, for the newsletter at MindSpace Stamford - explaining what my cycling trip and fund raising was all about.

This morning, my awareness was drawn to the wonderful system(less) place and space which this trip was, and represented. Away, in landscapes and places of childhood and dreams, me and my aspirations and my being, my redemption and fulfilment.

1. Do we need some system(less) space, always? I believe that we do, for certain, in a world where our entire being can so easily seem bound and constrained and hemmed in by the technology of modern life, dictated by the structures and patterns and norms all around us.
2. Can we find such system(less) space when we are plugged in and part of the system? I believe this is so essential, as we aspire to be more than consumption focused perpetuators of the status quo which has our world on its knees in so many dimensions - spiritually, ethically, environmentally, socially.

You can choose to cycle, to walk, to sit.

Close your eyes, breathe, in and out, slowly, repeat.

There, some space, some respite from what frets us and gnaws at our humanity, belittles our being.

Repeat, build, and be.

My Cycling Trip - for Mindspace

What I did??

In June 2023, I spent six days cycling in the Pyrenees as part of an organised cycling trip. Over six days, we cycled from Bayonne to Cavirac, staying in a different town each night. Our luggage was transferred from hotel to hotel for us, so all each of us had to do was cycle the 340 miles and 40,000 feet of ascending. My fundraising for Mindspace raised ￡2100 through donations from friends and colleagues and neighbours and family.?

Why I did this?

I was inspired by photos and tales of Mike’s cycling trip in the Picos de Europa during Summer 2022. Mountains have always been a fascination, a place of magic and exploration, since childhood. Walking and hiking are the extent of my mountain experiences over the years, though.?

Taking on this trip was, in hindsight, a way of challenging myself. Having taken up road cycling in 2018 - when I stopped running due to injury - I have only cycled for fitness and enjoyment. Over time, I had adapted to cycling instead of running as my meditative personal form of exercise. I have followed the Tour de France since the heyday of great Irish cyclists such as Stephen Roche and Sean Kelly, so the names of iconic climbs were familiar to me - Col du Tourmalet, Col d’Aubisque, Col d’Aspin, Port de Bales, Col de Peyresourde. These added a level of thrill and of fear which were motivating, compelling almost, for me.?

How did I prepare?

In the 9 months between paying my deposit and compelting the tour, my preparation focused on three core areas:

• Overall conditioning and fitness, including weight
• Time in the saddle, covering enough mileage and hills
• Improving my cycling skills and techniques

While I was learning about a new sport, effectively, I was able to bring many of my experiences from running years to bear on these focus areas.?

What did I learn?

There were days when my anxiety and my fears were barely manageable. I was familiar with tension and nervous anticipation from the weeks before all my big marathons - Paris, London, Berlin. This was in a different league, hence a new set of difficulties to manage, new capabilities to learn. Mountains are so different from city marathon courses - capricious weather, difficulty of preparing for cycling uphill for two hours.?

I knew that I needed to learn on the opening two days about cycling in the mountains, as the almost-sacred climb of Col du Tourmalet was on Day 3. The calm and ease which I felt when I had reached the summit of Tourmalet on Day 3 such an immense bundle of relief, belief, renewing.?Followed in quick succession, after lunch, by Col d'Aspin (photo above). I "came alive" here, when climbing, in comparison to the lumpy and leaden post-lunch legs on the flat few miles to the start of this climb.

By the end of the tour, on Day 6, I was at ease with myself in ways which I have not experienced before. I had become “good enough for myself” over the preceding week, the preceding nine months of preparation.

I had become so much better at simply "being" also. The stuff of living, the stuff of life, the stuff of being, human.