Cycling from Land's End to John O'Groats OR a Zen Retreat ?

I am about to cycle 1000 miles over 12 days.  I have no idea how I am going to do this.  I have never done anything like this before. The most I have cycled is 100 miles on a training ride and I was totally shattered afterwards. I have to do that for 12 days in a row. 

I have been anxious in a way I have never experienced before in the run up to the start.  And now it's here and I'm holding the intention of putting one foot in front of the other, doing my best to stay in the moment and be with what is. 

And then we looked at the map.  And my panic has set in. I don't understand how it's possible to cycle this whole way.  And in only 12 days.

So I have decided to let my blog into this experience, and have all who read it join in with the experience. I had a coaching session on Friday with my wonderful Integral Coach, James and he is a Zen practitioner amongst many other things.  At the end of the call I asked him for some 'Zen mind tricks' in the hope he could give me some survival tips to get me through. 

This led to a conversation that is how I intend to start this journey and I will be calling on his 'tricks' throughout.  Basically what we talked about was taking the approach that I could let each part of my body have it's own experience, it's own retreat.  James was talking about what happens on Zen retreats and how the body cries out when it sits for so long, is still for so long.  He said that I could, at any point, notice the story I am in about any part of my body at any point.  I could notice the primordial survival mode arriving with the pain and I have the choice to let the sensations fully be there without trying to change them or wish them away or see how they are evolving. 

We talked about how one of the underpinnings of Zen practise is about not escaping and cultivating a way of being that has us be way bigger than purely what's happening right now in either our thoughts, feelings or body.  We have a relationship to pain where if we are in this experience of something hurting, we feel collapsed - our whole world becomes that part of me that is in pain.  I get to the point where I will give up everything to just not hurt any longer.  And I get the opportunity to work with this and see how, day after day, I can find a way of working with pain and discomfort that has me not run away or try and change it.

The other aspect of this trip is that I am feeling very fearful - of pain, of the traffic, of the hills, of the safety aspect of cycling on British roads.  I am fearful of the cold, the rain, the technical bike issues that may arise. I am fearful of eating too much, not eating enough, running out of energy, overeating - everything really.  So we came up with the intention of having the chance to face fear, see what it really is, be with it.  Maybe fear can be purely itself ? Maybe I get a chance to examine what it is truly - what if I can hang with this fear and get close to it, let it have its experience without me trying to interfere.


So here are my bold intentions:

1. To let my body have its experience of pain or discomfort without trying to change it. 
2. To open to this not being as difficult as I fear it is going to be.
3. To experience fear in it's rawness and immediacy - and to face it, to be in it fully.

And these next two weeks, I'll be on my iPad in the evenings writing a daily blog, from a spiritual perspective, after each day of hills, rain, sun, pain, joy, friendship, hunger, thirst and wonder.  So we'll all get to see how these intentions turn out - even this feels scary - I may fail miserably at fulfilling these intentions but I'm going to give it a go and see how it unfolds. 

Thank you for your support - and if you want to find out why I'm doing this, you can check out the story at our just giving page: www.justgiving.com/twincheeks.