cycling and drumming

A quick blog post on the cycling topic.  If you're here reading this blog, there's pretty good chance you know I'm a drummer by trade and cycling is one of my hobbies.  Recently I discovered something interesting on the effect of cycling on my drumming.

I found after a few long distance rides of 40 miles that my endurance had increased significantly and my mental focus and momentum could be held for longer periods of time while playing.  

When you're cycling long distances, once you get out there 20 miles or more, well, you have no choice but to ride back.  Unless you wanna call an uber.  Which I don't.  Anyways, cycling kind of forces you to deal with it.  and that mentality, once you've broken thru a few mental walls that tell you to stop, you'll likely find that on the other side of that wall  you can go a lot further than you might have thought.  

Bring that mindset to the drums and holding a groove.  Cyclists hold what they call a cadence for hours.  It's hypnotizing.  After a few rides, I sat down at the drums and that hypnotizing feeling was still there.  It was like I was already totally in a pocket, and I think that's maybe because I HAD been in a pocket for hours at a time already.  

I don't have any other major revelations to add.  I'm still sussing it all out.  This is my first summer back on a bike in many years.  But Hey!  Nevermind that, the important thing is that "groove sports" like cycling, jump rope, speed bag... that kind of stuff, is very interesting to me and I have found them all to be beneficial to my playing physicality.  

More to come on this topic soon...