Atari

I got an Atari home video console for Christmas in the early 80s.  The Atari 2600.  With the fake wood finish and red button joy sticks.  The best games also.  Pac Man.  Donkey Kong.  All the cool kids were into it.  A family in my neighborhood even burned out their TV after playing non stop for over 15 hours.  That wasn’t my problem.  I may have played with mine a total of 3 or 4 hours.  Max.  Maybe?  I liked hanging out in arcades as a teenager, but I never played the games.  Not once.  For some reason a Snickers bar seemed like a better way to spend any change that I had in my pocket.  I’ve just never been into video games.  I mean, I find them cool, but I just can’t seem to lose myself in them like everyone else.  The video game world seems to have collided with the cycling world these last few years with the introduction of Zwift, an online cycling platform that enables riders to ride and compete with each other virtually.  The concept is brilliant.  The graphics and avatars are amazing.  Most of my cycling friends are into it.  It certainly is the next big thing.  But, for some reason, I remain unmoved.  Maybe it’s the competitive aspect?  Maybe it’s the stationary pedaling?  I used to ride indoors all winter, 3 – 4 hours at a time when I trained to race.  But the truth is that I have not ridden on a stationary trainer once in about 5 years.  I just can’t anymore.  I try to let myself be excited by the whole Zwift movement.  I really do.  The technology.  The practicality.  The potential to get faster.  But if I’m honest, I would be faking it.  Maybe my reason is the same as why I never really played with my Atari 2600?  Maybe my problem is really just that I never really was into video games?  Forward movement, going somewhere, outside, exploring the natural world I live in is too big of a part of why I ride.  The crunchy feel of my tires floating on top of the gravel.  The breeze brushing the skin on my face.  The smells.  The sounds.  The sceneries.  Like the way that the flora on the edge of this lake shelters the water on the side making the periphery surface smooth instead of choppy and rippled like the wind blown center.  Sorry Zwift, you really are amazing.  It isn’t you.  It’s me.