A Time of Transition

Most people who know me are aware that my only truly lifelong passion has been motorcycles. I spent a lot of my early life as a musician, some of my middle-life as an academic, and much of my post mid-life as an athlete. I spent all of my childhood dreaming about motorcycles, I rode a motorcycle for the first time as a pre-teen, crashed a motorcycle for the first time in my early teens, bought my first motorcycle before I was 20, and have owned one or more motorcycles nearly continuously for over 40 years.

I’ve also spent a lot of time touring by motorcycle. I’ve done several cross-country rides, both by myself and with others, and have seen most of the United States from the saddle of one bike or another. On motorcycle trips we had a saying: It takes 15 days to transition from being ON a motorcycle trip to being IN a motorcycle trip. At the start of that third week on the road the sensation of being on a ride goes away. From that day forward you are IN the ride. And, from that day forward it doesn’t matter what happens. There are no goals, no destinations that matter. To ride: that’s the goal. Everything else is a bonus.

I’m feeling the same thing about the 100 Days Challenge. I’m feeling less like I am taking the challenge and more like the challenge is taking me.

There’s no doubt that I have been an advocate for living a healthy, active, lifestyle. But to be honest, that lifestyle always seemed to have a goal associated with it. I was always training for some race, recovering from some race, building a base, working on my endurance, or stamina, or – dare I say it – speed. In the last couple of years I haven’t raced at any distance and I could sense that my enthusiasm for being active was beginning to wain.

I know this for SURE because in the past 19 days I’ve probably had one excuse or another about why I couldn’t get in 30 minutes of movement for nearly half of those days. My excuses are no different than anyone else; I’m too busy, I don’t have the time, I’ve got an early flight, I’ve had a long day, I’m tired, I’m hungry, I’m bored. You know the list.

But somewhere around day 15 I noticed a change. I noticed that while the excuses were the same, my reaction to the excuses had changed. I wasn’t willing to be too busy. I wasn’t willing to not move. About day 15 I transitioned from “having” to move every day to “wanting” to move every day.

I hope you are too. I think we’ve gone from being on this journey together to being IN this journey together. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow holds.

Waddle on, John

John “the Penguin” Bingham, Competitor Magazine columnist Author, The Courage to Start, No Need for Speed, Marathoning for Mortals and Running for Mortals.

Have a question for John? E-mail it to thepenguin@johnbingham.com.