Keep It In Perspective

Maintaining form and fitness as a cyclist demands a high level of commitment — which all too easily tips over into obsessiveness and a loss of perspective. Jim Cotton goes in search of bike-life harmony

Let’s face it, we think about our bikes a lot. When we should be working, when we’re watching TV, even sometimes in our sleep, our minds drift to cycling. Of course, ours is a largely healthy and wholesome pastime, but can it become too all-consuming? If we get too bogged down in numbers and statistics, is our commitment to cycling liable to become self-destructive? As someone who has fallen foul of this hazard, I wanted to assess the delicate balance between riding your bike for the simple joy of it, and its becoming an instrument of obligation and obsession.

We all know that cycling releases endorphins that boost mood, and many of us rely on the blissful unwinding effect of riding our bikes. “A problem is only truly a problem if it remains after a bike ride,” the old saying goes.

Sports psychologist and avid rider Josephine Perry explains this further: “Cycling gives you fantastic headspace to relieve stress and cope with diffcult things in life.” Even the NHS website says that cycling “can improve the symptoms of some mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety.”

As with anything that feels really good, you want keep doing it as frequently as practically possible. The feel-good brain chemicals, the delicious data, the measurable fitness gains... it’s all very addictive.

“Tangible numbers to improve on — power, time, speed — are noticeably absent in a lot of the major activities in daily life,” says Perry. Many day jobs are devoid of measurable indicators of success — promotions and pay rises are vanishingly infrequent. “The evidence of progress as you train is hugely addictive, and it makes you want to ride and train more,” adds Perry.