When I meet successful people in business from time to time, I more often than not find that having conquered the business world - physical challenge brings them more happiness than another business success could. Especially if it just a 5k that some average athlete shrugs off; all challenges are personal. Sometimes, if running a profitable business, building and managing people effectively is not a challenge, a 40 min 5-k can very well be.
Book recommendation, not just about cycling: The Rider, by Tim Krabbé
"The greater the suffering, the greater the pleasure. That is nature’s payback to riders for the homage they pay her by suffering. Velvet pillows, safari parks, sunglasses; people have become woolly mice. They still have bodies that can walk for five days and four nights through a desert of snow, without food, but they accept praise for having taken a one-hour bicycle ride. ‘Good for you’. Instead of expressing their gratitude for the rain by getting wet, people walk around with umbrellas. Nature is an old lady with few friends these days, and those who wish to make use of her charms, she rewards passionately.”
Book recommendation, not just about cycling: The Rider, by Tim Krabbé
"The greater the suffering, the greater the pleasure. That is nature’s payback to riders for the homage they pay her by suffering. Velvet pillows, safari parks, sunglasses; people have become woolly mice. They still have bodies that can walk for five days and four nights through a desert of snow, without food, but they accept praise for having taken a one-hour bicycle ride. ‘Good for you’. Instead of expressing their gratitude for the rain by getting wet, people walk around with umbrellas. Nature is an old lady with few friends these days, and those who wish to make use of her charms, she rewards passionately.”
http://www.belgiumkneewarmers.com/2008/01/tim-krabbes-the-ri...
http://www.amazon.com/Rider-Tim-Krabbe/dp/1582342903