Night and day – Night
Night and day – Night
Quite recently this opinionated cyclist was confronted with a query – night or day? A rather simple question asked capriciously caught me off guard, thus I failed to summon a response worthy of said opinionated cyclist. My ability to delineate an opinion was curtailed from too much caffeine and the USA today, an excuse for my dubious reply, or at least this is what I would like to believe in my defense. The following is my opinion of night and why I prefer night than day.
Part I : Night.
Night. In spite of everything we are still, as a species, uncomfortable with it, even fearful. We have from earliest times invested much of our technological effort into artificially dispelling the darkness, to the extent that, those of us who live in cities never really experience it’s full depths anymore. Those shrouded in darkness or not we still seem to fear it, apprehensive till a faithful return of day.
I say sod ill-concieved fears of darkness, enjoy it. 
As the sun emerges along the eastern horizon my mind becomes apprehensive, I think only about cycling; the scheduled training, daily nutrition, body self assessment. Until the finale of my training, which commonly occurs shortly before nights eve, my thoughts and actions become dominated from my obsessive passion of cycling offering little room for much else. Whether I like to admit it or not, after time it becomes a stress, a heavy burden to shoulder, a burden associated with day.
Night alleviates the pressure of day, no longer am I focused entirely on cycling. I simply unwind, resting my tired body from it’s rigorous endeavors, casting my efforts to other meaningful tasks. I associate night with productivity and relaxation after a day of aggressive drivers, rogue turkeys, sweat, suffering and pain. The life of a cyclist is dictated by training and recovery which in reciprocal fashion can be looked upon as day and night.
- Day can be full of wonderful moments on the bike, yet is associated with suffering
- Night can be limiting for a cyclist to ride in, yet is filled with opportunity to recover/relax
When we finish training we instinctivly seek recovery in the form of hygeine, nutrition and rest. Our arduos endeavour is now finished, and this is when the beauty of training physiology occurs. Recovery from training is what makes us stronger, faster and more able bodies athletes and I find this immensely exciting as a developing bike dood.
Recovery food post training, "brenner" seen here
I’m quite happy to sit in the cool moonlight and simply look at the world while time loses all meaning. I feel isolated from my surroundings, as seen during day, permiting an opportunity to collect my thoughts without distraction,- allowing increased focus, perspective and commitment to whatever I choose to do. On the slip side night offers this canuck the excuse to “bust a move” on dance floors near and far and spend obligatory social time with friends and family.
Joyful experiences with night have also taken place on the bike.
During my employment in the horse industry in South Florida I participated in night group riding every Tuesday night. Each rider armed with a brilliant array of mounted lights, warding off civilians and motorists, riding at night can be dangerous, the unseen road less forgiving. The clock strikes 7 and we set off in the black, we ride hard, we attack, we take risks, we feel more alive riding at night than we ever could during the day.
I will always remember this feeling of unbelievable intensity as I ride my blinking steed down a flat road. The darkness clouds my vision, I see little than my fluid legs humming a mechanical tune, I hear little than my labored breath. Using the painted lines on the road as a guideline I focus on little else as the passing scenery remains unseen to my eye, this offers a feeling all cyclists desire – flow.
Take care eh
EuroG
Night-time sharpens,
heightens each sensation
Darkness stirs and wakes imagination
Silently the senses abandon their defences …
Slowly, gently night unfurls its splendour
Grasp it, sense it – tremulous and tender
Turn your face away
from the garish light of day,
turn your thoughts away
from cold, unfeeling light -
and listen to the music of the night …
Excerpt from a man who truly enjoy the night – The Phantom of the Opera
The opinionated barista is pleased with this response. Especially the Phantom of the Opera reference. Anyways, I was pondering a bit about night vs day after you left, and I realized that almost every enjoyable activity becomes more enjoyable at night time. I guess because with darkness comes a heightened sense of awareness, so everything that we feel or encounter is affected by this and each sense is similarly magnified.
However, although i find the night preferable as well, I think many people could point out that both of us grew up in comparatively safe environments (Canada and Orange County) and that this has lulled us into a false sense of security about the night and its often realistic horrors. so while people in the wilderness or a city riddled with gang violence feel real fear at night, we only experience a small amount of fear, which just registers as excitement.
Also, day time can always pull out that “goodness and truth” card if it needs to because of our associations with light and darkness.
And theres something to be said about trudging out of the icy pacific ocean, falling on the sand, and letting the sun slowly warm you back to life as you watch the little beads of water on your arm evaporate before your eyes.
so heres a little something for the sun to say, you are defeated, but you are still amazing
It is Born
Here I came to the very edge
where nothing at al needs saying
everything is absorbed through weather and sea
and the moon swam back
its rays all silvered
and time and again the darkness would be broken
by the crash of a wave
and every day on the balcony of the sea
wings open
fire is born
and everything is blue again like morning
-Neruda
which leads me to my next query:
dawn or dusk?
I am sure other cyclists would agree with this perspective, but I’ve never seen it enumerated in such an eloquent and insightful fashion. Kudos!
It seems too good to be true that you were also a horse rider. I wonder which occurred first, the chicken or the egg, you riding a bicycle or you riding a horse and did one lead to the other? And are they the same or different. I don’t know of many elite level cyclists that have a horse riding background, perhaps it’s more widespread that once thought?
Very insightful, thank you for your comment. Sent an email.
Hey Roger,
Cycling and horses don’t exactly go hand in hand. I was brought up with an extensive background in the horse industry which helped me financially get started with cycling and offered a chance to race/train in cool places. Metaphorically speaking the egg will be my upbringing in the “pony” industry hatching to reveal some bike dood. Haha
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