The Pursuit of Pain

After reading a friends recount of her Transrockies experience I was forced to ask myself the question of why I ride the way I ride. It is weird for an individual not only to ride a bike for fun but to pursue the feeling of leg pain and lung suffering. I tell myself it is just a left over feeling from my competitive speed skating days where pain meant improvement and without it we become stale. I have been two years out of skating and yet I still feel the same need to hurt. It is also one of the reasons I want to race the Transrockies and not simply ride it. The accomplishment of suffering is what truly gives me satisfaction in an achievement. I look forward into the future and wonder if my perception of riding has been skewed and if I will be able to learn to enjoy long easy rides or continue to look forward to the feeling of going fast, hurting and conquering the next hill as fast as possible while inflicting as much pain on myself and anyone riding along beside, behind or in front of me.