Local Cyclists Goes with the Flow

While most kids were out tossing the ball around or playing on their local soccer teams, Ben McKeown was busy reading Bicycle Magazine, following the Tour de France, and saving his paper route money to buy his first road bike. 

Through middle school Ben used riding to earn badges for Boy Scouts.  He rode 50 miles rides with his troop and found a passion for the sport.  But with high school and the freedom of driving, he cycled less and less and by the time he reached college, he had left the sport behind completely.

As his fitness routine slid, his weight began creeping up.

“They talk about the freshman fifteen,” joked McKeown. “Well I gained my fifteen and yours and that guy’s over there and that girl’s there too.”

After graduating and becoming engaged Ben began to realize what the weight could mean.  He looked at his father who was suffering with Type 2 Diabetes and realized that if he didn’t do something he would end up like his father.

Just as he came to accept that he needed to become more active, one of his friend’s at church ran the Marine Corps Marathon.  Having a competitive spirit, Ben decided that if she could do it so could he.  Though he had always thought of himself as a poor runner, he started training, going from couch potato to marathon in one year.

As a fitness columnist I love Ben’s story.  Not because he worked hard to cross the finish line, not because since that first marathon he has moved on to triathlon and road cycling, cycling as much as 200 kilometers in a day.  But because when I first met him and talked to him about featuring him in my column, he put me off.

He told me about the guys he rides with and the incredible things they do.  He explained how they ride hundreds and hundreds of miles on a weekend and have been doing it for years.  He explained how he is married with no children so his schedule makes it easy to get a workout in. 

And finally when I asked him if he maintains a blog about the long rides he does with his cycling club he said, “No, but if I did I would have to call it the Lazy Cyclist.”

I was sold on his story that moment.  So many of my running and cycling friends believe that what they are doing is not worthy of mention.  So many of them believe that because other people are going further or faster, their own workouts and races are less important.  What they don’t get, what Ben doesn’t get is how far they have come and how much their fitness trickles down to other people.

Ben is a great example of getting up, getting active and doing something you enjoy in the process.  He started with running because it was convenient.  A pair of running shoes and some shorts and he is ready to go but had he decided to stick strictly to running, his new fitness habit may have fallen to the side.  He did something not everybody does.  He thought back to what he loved as a kid and started doing it again.  He renewed a passion and it’s that passion that will keep him going. 

But he did something else as well.  He adopted an attitude of moderation.  Instead of setting rules for himself that stifle his passion, he accepted that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing.  He doesn’t have to ride hundreds and hundreds of miles every week.

“I go in waves,” he said. “Sometimes I ride a lot and sometimes, its really cold out there or I am really busy and I back off a bit, but I always do it with the idea that I will keep coming back.”

I love Ben’s example because it is one we can all follow.  We don’t have to try to be the next Lance Armstrong or the next marathoning neighbor, we just have to find something we love and do it.  

We don’t have to push full throttle year in and year out. Instead we can ebb and flow with the currents of our lives.  Our lives are not constant.  Trying to set rules about fitness that are steadfast and unbendable puts us in a position to fail.  Accepting that sometimes we will have to back off makes it easier to come back to fitness over and over again.