Settling In

It has taken a while to settle into this journey, for cycling daily to become my normality, my purpose for the day. It's a mindset. The change I have been awaiting is for the balance of my thoughts to become completely weighted towards the journey I am on rather than its destination, to enjoy each moment of the day rather than look forward to the day's end. It is a state of mind I seem to slip into quite quickly when walking but it seems to have taken a little longer on my bike. Even while enjoying the route, too often in the first few days I would find my gaze slipping to my speedometer to check the distance I had travelled, my mind focused on 'how far?' or 'how long?' rather than on embracing all that was around me. And all too often I was disappointed: it had never moved that far. Or probably more accurately for how I was thinking, it had never moved far enough. I guess there is a perception of being so much faster on a bike: I expect distances to slip by. And of course they generally do. But I am going four times faster than when walking and I am looking to go at least four times as far in a day too. These bigger numbers take longer, about as long as a full day on foot. But somewhere deep in my brain I think walking distances were influencing my perceptions, my unconscious expectations. And even with the distances I am covering, each day so far has only been a tiny bite out of the crossing of France let alone the crossing of most of Europe. I have a long way to go and for my benefit I need to remember, this trip is not about the reaching of Constanta and the Black Sea, it's about the going there.