Hills

Written by Amy Lyon

We each had our own relationship with the hills. Shari attacked them, relying on her strong leg muscles, tri-athlete training and will power. She lived for the hills. Andrew, our resident mountain goat, seemed not to tire, and kept his own pace in whatever order he decided to ride, first or last, it didn’t matter to him, the hills were just flat rides with a little twist.

Mike took them in stride, worked and conquered everyone, as did Rebecca, who was remarkable and constant. Jonathan and I had the most trouble and each of us at one point or another walked and caught a few bus rides up.

The last day of the trip, cycling the beautiful island of Cat Ba, Tanh gave me a breathing lesson that revolutionized my ability to do hills. I realized I’d been breathing wrong, and with that, not getting enough oxygen to my heart, which caused it to pump faster, forcing me to stop. I thought it was congenital. I had developed what I thought was a technique to regulate my heart, by breathing consistently, the same in breathes as out, and I’d count them by four. I thought the way to calm my heart was to control my breathing. Evidently this is the opposite of what I should have been doing.

Here’s the trick, and for this I will never forget Tanh. First off, he said, we should breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth. When one breathes in through the nose, the breathe goes deeper into the abdomen. And follow what the heart is asking for. The faster it is pumping, the faster one should be breathing in, this then feeds the heart the oxygen it is asking for. Breathe out naturally. Follow your heart.

I practiced what Tanh said along the road that wound from sea to hill to sea again around the island. I was amazed at the first hill. My heart did not race; it remained constant as it was fed the oxygen it was asking for. Why now? I thought. Why was I given this on the last day of the ride? If I believe there are no coincidences, a belief I come in and out of, this is exactly when I was to receive it. Evidently I needed to struggle on hills for two weeks to learn to follow my heart. Perhaps this is a lesson to take with me off the saddle.

The end arrived at a cul de sac just below the Sunrise Hotel on the far side of the town of Cat Ba. We did it. We rode through challenges and delights and got stronger as the days passed. We learned when to stop and when to push, although most of us pushed more than we stopped. I was proud of us and amazed that if we had more to go, we were ready. I was teary, relieved and filled with a sense of accomplishment. Physically, we had done what we set out to do.

It was bittersweet to take off our panniers and watch Tanh disassemble our seats and pedals. It would feel odd to wake the next morning and not prepare to ride. Although Shari would get up and take a ride through town.)

Even before we finished the cycling on Sunday August 5 at 2:00 pm we started scheming: Where next for more on the job training?