Yesterday, I had a doctors appointment at 12:00 noon and was home by 2:00PM. I immediately jumped on the bike and headed for my favorite ride that I save for special occaisions. It's a 40 mile ride, 20 out 20 in, down the coast along high cliffs with fantastic views, gruling hills and fast decents, with wide breakdown/bike lanes.

When I was about 5 miles out, I felt really good. My speed was higher than usual, my heartrate was lower, and my cadence steady and quick, my gearing monsterous. It crossed my mind, briefly, that mabey I could make a shot at my fastest time.

In my endorphine haze, It became absolutely clear to me. This was pay back time. Pay back for all the times I turned away that fourth donut. Pay back time for for that time I left the bar early to go to sleep and my buddies ended up drinking all night and had "The Best Time Of Their Lives". Pay back for all the carrot sticks and apples I ate while Burger King was just across the street. I laughed aloud and planned to spit shine the bike and show up early to the next club ride where I'd pull at the front all day turning to laugh at the boys falling off the back while I was firing snot rockets with wild abandon. Absolute uphoria.

I was on a record run.

Then, at the end of the out lap, I turned to take it home and my world came crashing down. Now, a little late, my memory kicked in. To a savy rider, a quicker pace, an easy fast candence, and a low heart rate out of the blue means something. As I turned, I am embarrassed to say, I was surprised to find that I was facing a near gale force headwind! All the euphoria, all the ego instantly left me alone and tiny, 20 miles from home. My speed crawled, my cadence was erratic and my heart went through the roof. I thought to myself, how am I going to get through this? Suddenly, the dark clouds parted a little, and a beam of sunlight shown down on me. It came to me as scripture. WWJCD. What, Would, the J is silent, ChrisL Do? I called on all my inner ChrisL power (good thing he was asleep at the time and wasn't using it) and slowly composed myself. I got in my best areo position, and started to get my cadence under control and my speed back up.

The pace did come back up a fair bit and studying the gauges I came to find that I still had an outside chance at the record. I beat through it, sceaming at times, and experienced more pain than I can remember.

Now, sitting in my warm house, one hot shower, 800 mg of Advil, and one flat tire (when did that happen?) later, I'm pleased to say that I've busted my fast time by a whopping 21 minutes when half the way out I thought I was finished!

In the end, after the endorphine was gone, it occured to me that this emotional ride was pay back. Pay back for all the mundane rides I took in order to keep my legs. Pay back for all the smiles I've given to the mean spirited people on rides. Pay back for all the flat tires one of which, ironically, I must now go deal with.

All Right! Bit&hin ride Greg! I hate it when I turn around and 'am faced with a headwind that I hadn't thought was there!! Like you the ride out is soooo sweet! Then I turn around and WHAMMMM! No wonder!

Great ride!

Gee, wouldn't this position be rather difficult, especially when riding wearing a robe, cloak, and sandles? Wouldn't just riding a road bike be pushing the limits of humility? If he were alive today, wouldn't he be more likely riding a cruiser, or maybe a hybrid? Scripture has the answers toall these questions?? Which book??
I'm sorry Greg, but you went over the top on this one. You were short-sighted in planning your return, and that got you into a bind. It's nice to know that some inner or outer power brought you up to speed, but relating this to scripture or some perceived action that Jesus would've done takes, to say the least, quite a stretch of imagination.

D*Alex,
I am pretty sure he was referring to our very own Chris L from the land of Oz. Not THE JC. That's why the J is silent. OUR Chris L is a nut case for hills and headwinds. And I mean that in the nicest way, Chris L.
Rainman

DAlex, Have you had your morning coffee yet?

Yes, I did.
And I didn't need to ask whether he would've taken cream or sugar, either. Some things are just too trivial to be turned into theological debates. This is one of them.

And I was just starting to like you.

Sorry if I've offended you in any way.

You haven't offended me. Trivialised your faith, maybe, but you certainly haven't offended me.

Greg, congrats! I had a major headwind last night, and totaly wimped out, turned around at 4 miles, rather then my standard 12 miles... We should put little "WWCD" stickers on the headset

Alex, i wont go into detail in this post, but could you read the forum guidelines? Thanks

Great story, Greg. :thumbup:

I'm sorry, Joe, but I don't see where asking somebody how they personally construe the supposed actions of their preferred diety from mundane occurances, such as were described in greg's post. I don't have a clue what Jesus would've done in such a situation. Perhaps he would've, upon seeing the folly of his deed, sold his bike at the next shop, donated the money to the first church he crossed, and walked home. It's a possibility.
This seems to be a personal shortcoming of mine. When something challenging happens, I generally just deal with it in the best way that I know how, using the brain that I was provided with, and deal with the consequences or rewards resulting from such actions. I have personally never witnessed any interference of the almighty within anything that I've ever observed, and don't generally find myself asking how a prophet of 2 mellenia previous would deal in just such a situation.
The reason why I would not is because I am not Jesus. Only Jesus would know what Jesus would do, and by saying that I knew what he would do would be tantamount to saying that I thought in the exact same way. In medeival times, such a statement would likely have resulted in being labelled a heretic, with all the drawbacks that would offer.
I'm sorry if I rubbed Greg the wrong way. I hear people use these expressions all the time, and the underlying assertation that "I know what Jesus thinks" is, for me at least, being utterly sanctimonious. Applying the same logic in the situation mentioned could also be used as a way of limiting personal responsibility (although the argument for that is a bit of a stretch, and, besides, that's not what I'm trying to say), by saying that "I got myself into this mess, but he will get me out of it", rather than saying "well, I'm gonna have to work harder than I planned to-next time I'll think ahead".
OK, so I'm a bit abrasive. I'm sorry if I made you think about the underlying message in your post, and I'm sorry if you either don't like the fact that I don't believe in your faith, or that maybe you feel belittled. It's not your faith that I'm talking about, it's the way that people haphazardly apply it.
Jesus was a great teacher, for sure. I have always admired the teaching attributed to him by such authors as Matthew, Mark, and Luke, who re-told the stories of his life anywhere from 30-75 years after his death. I admire his teachings, but do not believe in his divinity. I also believe that there are limits to taking his teaching out of context, and applying them to situations which he never addressed. I'm sorry if people find that offensive.

Where the hell did Jesus come into play? He was talking about ChrisL not Jesus.

Maybe I am missing something.

All I get from this post is a nod to ChrisL for his climbing abilities. What is the BFD??!!!???

Greg had a kick *** ride, shared a story with us (an enjoyable one) and it has be turned into something else entirely. What a shame...

Well, the letters WWJCD were used. If it weren't the "J" man being referred to, then who else was it? Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe I'm not the only one, either. Perhaps I'm reading too far into something meant to be ambiguous? If so, it was so incredibly ambiguous as to be misconstrued completely.
If theat is the case, let me plant my foot firmly in mouth..
(P.S.: what goes with crow??)

(boy, I am getting crochety in my old age!)

The J is silent...

Hi Greg,

I have done the same myself with those tailwinds that you dont realize are there! *S*

Ride hard....well maybe not that hard *S*

Dudley

Number One: As a rather solid atheist, I find it rather irritating that one would take a running joke -- that of Chris L. being the patron saint of headwinds, hills, and leeches, and turn it into some type of theological argument (with a very resentful tone) because the name of some ancient carpenter was somehow implied. The "JC" in "WWJCD" could have been any of a multitude of two words fitting the acronym; Johnny Cash, Jenny Craig, Jacob's Cat, and Jedi Cadets comes to mind.

Number Two: People are free to believe and speak as they wish; just because a statement offends an individual's sensibilities doesn't de-facto make it inappropriate, wrong, or needing criticism. I rather enjoyed the joke; and I have, oddly enough, found myself offering prayer to Chris L ( ) when I find myself at the base of a hellish hill that sits between me and home.

Enough of that; that's really all I have to say on that subject.

Great post, great story, and thanks for the laugh!

Hey, that's cool. You can borrow it anytime you like . Actually, it sounds like a seriously awesome ride! And you did it all with a flat tyre? You are a living legend!

... And now I have no excuse to wimp out if the forecasted rain hits tomorrow morning (not that I would have anyway )

:thumbup:

Ahhhh, leeches. I was thinking of heading up to Lamington tomorrow, thanks for the reminder .

What? And I thought I was being compared to the main man himself! Oh well. I'm actually under a self-imposed ban from arguing about religion, so I won't comment any further. All I'll say is, can we all calm down a little bit. Greg took on the headwind and won. Who cares where the inspiration came from. It was an awesome ride, that is all. Let's save our energy for the hills and headwinds of the future.

I can agree with that one. I've got about thirty miles of fun hills ahead of me on Sunday, and I'm hoping for about forty miles of flatland on Saturday. Woo hoo!

Religion, hot topic number 1. Politics would be second. Heck, if you can't even talk about conquering a killer climb without one of those two coming up.....sheesh....Something is really wrong.

Greg, I bet your legs felt a mile wide when you got to the top.

What would Jesus do? He would say, "Great ride, Greg!" And then he would turn to his good friends, Buddha and Allah, and say, "Now that guy is an inspiration!" :angel:

I would call this thread, "WWGD". (What Would Greg Do?) After all, that's what matters: what would you do?

Controversy aside, the rest of your post (the most important part)
was perhaps among the keenest, most original posts I've ever read. Especially about how your self-sacrifice is paying off.

This truth will live on in me and serve me for the rest of my life.

(Pass the corn, please.)

Greg,
GOOD JOB BY YOU!!! VERY COOL!
Ride well
Pat
P.S. No comments on where or how you get your inspiration, it's no ones' business but YOUR OWN!

For me, when I think things are going really swell and I think "Wow, I must be getting in shape", I check the flags.

To this date, the flags have always revealed that really smooth riding means the wind is with me.