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The Flow of Mountain Biking

 
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 1:09 am    Post subject: The Flow of Mountain Biking Reply with quote

Read below for the rhymes and reasons for being in "The Zone" while mountain biking.
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 1:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Flow of Mountain Biking
By Bryan McFarland

I began mountain biking back in 1995 after two good friends of mine introduced me to the sport. At that time, I owned a very unstable and incapable Murray mountain bike that I bought from Walmart. The most appealing element of a trail ride, at that time, was the white-knuckled adrenaline-inducing fear that came from rocketing down a rock infested trail while barely maintaining control. After each ride, I felt completely exhilarated, but I also had a competitive spirit that knew that I could get better with each ride. I needed to conquer the challenge. After many years with countless crashes and several broken bones, I can now say that I have mastered mountain biking.

The peak experience usually begins with anticipation. The whim to ride crosses my mind and then slowly lights up thoughts and memories in my brain. A cascade of emotion builds like a snowball at first, bouncing and rolling down through my senses, but gradually builds to an avalanche of desire. My excitement rises with each passing minute and my body responds with energy and an acute restless legs syndrome and fast-twitch muscles firing and popping subconsciously. I want to ride and I need to ride to discharge the explosive energies inside.

As I make my preparations by changing into my gear and tuning up my bike, my mind begins to narrow it’s attention. Thoughts streamline and an intense focus begins to consume me. Memories of past challenges transform into virtual reality with my mind practicing the skills to overcome technical terrain – rocks, roots, drops and jumps. My mind is obedient as if following the direction of some invisible Jedi Master and visualizing the accomplishment of impossible skills. After loading my bike onto the rack, I notice my heart pounding. I drive to the trailhead with dreams of mountain biking passing in and out of my head.

I’m there and I’m ready with muscles tense and taught. My mountain biking posse awaits me with bikes churning circles in the graveled lot. As I fasten my helmet and slide on my Oakley’s my consciousness dilutes to a fine line. I apply power to the cranks and pedal with a burst of speed. With other bikers I am safe and the worry of injury and sense of caution dissolve away. For the first ten minutes or so, my breathing is labored and my quads protest and burn, but once my body has adjusted to the turmoil, everything synchronizes to a senseless blur. It is during this time that the zone consumes my body, my bike, and my consciousness into one purpose. Possible and impossible seize to exist and my mortal self gives way to ultimacey. It is as if I am communing with God.

I negotiate the narrow woodland trail with effortless speed. My bike, as an extension of my self, jumps logs, climbs ledges, thunders over roots, and feathers over narrow precipices. At times, an instant after achieving the impossible by clearing a previously unobtainable obstacle, my mind snaps back to reality with a sense of surprise and pride in what I had just done. This recognition of self lingers for just another pass of the pedals then falls away to oblivion.

After riding and pounding over the earth for both an instant and an eternity, the zone begins to give way to the groaning of my body. Hours have passed and reality has punished me with pain for evading it’s desperate grip. My breathing is deep and labored as my lungs burn in protest. My knees are stiff and sore from the steadfast cycling. My arched back aches from the pounding and nearly all of my muscles burn and tremble with exhaustion. I long for rest and finish the ride slow and empty.

I recover back at home with a slow reviving shower and replenish my empty body with a comforting meal. For hours after the ride, usually the remainder of the day, I am overcome with a great sense of contentment. There are no urgencies and no stress as I relax the day away.

This regularly occurring mountain biking experience reflects every element of enjoyment and flow as described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his groundbreaking book, Flow, The Psychology of Optimal Experience. The specific evidence that this was a flow experience is that it is a challenging activity that requires skill, action and awareness are perceived to merge, intense concentration is focused on the task at hand, there is a loss of the awareness of fear, worry and consequence, self-consciousness is lost, the sense of time is lost, and the optimal experience is an end in itself (the goal is the experience).

According to Camille Dodson in her paper, Seeing the Flow, EEG’s have demonstrated that flow is very similar to meditation. In the meditative state, strong alpha brain waves form which are associated with relaxation, inspiration, creativity and the subconscious; however, there is a great lack of beta waves which are strongly associated with attention, concentration, focus, problem-solving, and stress. It is important to note that solving intellectual tasks stimulate very strong beta waves while tests of creativity produce strong alpha waves. In a flow state, the brain utilizes beta waves while simultaneously generating strong alpha waves associated with the subconscious. This in effect consolidates the brain’s alternate states of consciousness to greatly increase capacity. Camille Dodson quotes Raymond and Landley, “this extended consciousness equips us to solve complex problems, follow extended chains of reasoning, and take on tasks that we simply cannot fit into the transient episodes of normal beta-wave arousal.”

The extremely desirable rewards of experiencing flow help to create a strong drive for replicating the experience. This desire for replicating the experience fosters strong internal motivation for the activity that best achieved flow. It is well known that practicing skills is an essential element for mastery, so in a sense, flow is an important element for achieving mastery. Furthermore, the flow experience, as a result of harnessing both alpha and beta waves, increases one’s capacity for mastery in the moment. It could be argued that the highest skill possible can only be achieved while in flow. Considering the assumptions of theory related to learning and memory, it is reasonable to conclude that one’s skill level may increase with each flow experience.

Conjecture

The downside is that if the experience of flow becomes addictive and the activity is exhausting, there could be a negative consequence. This concept occurred to me while thinking about the proverbial surf or ski bum. The rewards of the experience become so overwhelming that little else can distract the surfer or skier. Surfing and skiing are also very athletic performances which often result in exhaustion. This exhaustion is cause enough for getting little done else for the remainder of the day. If there is a resurgence of energy, the pursuit of flow will most likely be a major motivation. So in a sense, a surf or ski bum (or even a mountain biker for that matter) may in fact be a flow junky, living off the blissful experience of their pursuit with little else to gain.

References:
Camille Dodson. Seeing the Flow. www.supercami.com/new_website/school/capstone/seeingFlow.doc , last accessed on 2-15-09.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi , (1990). Flow, The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper & Row Publishers, New York, NY.
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