extraordinaryblog

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Archive for category Cycling

Why I Cycle

Apr 15

Posted by alastair in Cycling, Daily Life | No Comments

There are many things in my life that are not quite right at the moment.  Things that I kind of know that I need to change, decisions that need to be made, things that don’t feel right.

But when I got on my bike today and took the trusty Orbea Aqua out on a 10 mile lunch break blow out the cobwebs kind of run, well things for a moment changed.

It was about the 7 mile point, a nice flat run, in a high gear.  I was labouring just hard enough, yet moving swiftly and effortlessly.  The bike and I just seemed to pull the horizon near to us.  I didn’t need to do anything more.  I didn’t need to examine anything or think about anything.  For those moments I just happily existed, doing something well, natural and seemingly organic.

Everything, yes everything just felt OK at that moment.

And it left me feeling, that maybe, just maybe, other parts of my life can get to that point too.

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Cycling and Muses

Mar 28

Posted by alastair in Cycling, Personal Growth | No Comments

Orbea Aqua

What have I achieved this week?  What have I done to work towards my Extraordinary life?

I thought I would post a quick update on my progress.  I intend to make this a regular posting in order to keep track of my progress and also to make myself accountable.  As far as I can tell, accountability is a great tool to aid achievement.

So, this week I have taken some time away from my day to day job and used that time to think as well as take some small steps.

I managed to do two things, which I am proud of.  Firstly, one of my goals is to regain a good level of fitness.  My chosen method for this is cycling, in particular, road cycling.  I’ve tried gyms, and running and they just didn’t seem to work for me.  But I have always enjoyed the process of cycling – the speed, precision and sense of movement, combined with working with a well engineered machine.  It’s something that I have recently begun again and after a few weeks of inactivity due to illness, I was aching to get back in the saddle.

Thursday it raining all day, but I just decided to get out anyway and hang anyone who thought I looked a bit silly.  So I took my mountain bike out for a good 6 mile run.  (I don’t take the road bike out in these conditions as it seems a wee bit dangerous)

But yesterday I thought I’d have a proper run.  Out came my precious bike – an Orbea Aqua. (I’ll write a more detailed review on it later, suffice it to say I LOVE it)  I set off on what was supposed to be a 10 miler.  But at the halfway point I just decided to go a bit extra.  And in the end, with the benefit of Runkeeper on my iPhone, I realised that I had done 15 miles.  There were a couple of steep hills, which I just dug in and attacked.  Coming back on the home run, a long, fast stretch had me smiling as I just felt the joy of my body working well, pushing power down through the aluminium and carbon fiber and watching as the road just vanished underneath me.

I set a target and went further.  I burned off over 500 calories.  I achieved something and felt great!

My other success?  Well I am working on a ‘Muse’ a la Tim Ferris 4HWW.  It’s an idea I have had for a long time and I will share more here later.  But in brief I have an idea for a web business that I want to set up to run almost independently, yet hopefully provide a reasonable passive income stream.  I have high hopes, yet I know it may not work.  But the way I see it, either way I will have gained experience and if I don’t actually try, then it will be guaranteed to NOT succeed.

So, overall I have moved a bit forward and achieved some good stuff this week!

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