Are you a cyclist who has experienced riding in the zone?
If so, what is it? Can you initiate it?

Zone?

The zone, also known as 'the flow'. Similar the the 'runner's high', but is said to be different.

I cycle quite a bit, but never get the same high from biking that I do from running. I think I have to focus on everything around me too much, for safety's sake, so my mind never empties or relaxes. I don't live in a very bike friendly area, half the time I feel like I'm risking me life when I'm out there.

I have, however, gotten into an almost meditative zone lap swimming in an Olympic pool when I was training for a tri. Boy was that nice. My brain was nice and empty, the feel of the water flowing over me was so soothing, the muffled sounds really helped -- really lovely. I wish I had a lap pool at my house, I'd swim alot if I did.

I think I experienced this on my first "long" ride (10 miles, I'm not much of a cyclist!) I was going faster than I'd ever gone and it just felt like I could go on forever! Everything else was just flying by and all I could see was straight ahead, everything else was a blur. It was pretty cool. I would love to get that feeling again.

Hello Mrs Snark.
My experiences of riding in the zone came after about 7 years of riding, and a little help from reading Sri Chimnoy's articles of spirituality and sport.
It takes a lot of riding to get to a point where one feels little doubt about how to ride their bike in all circumstances.

When i started to swim, I was too tense to stay afloat (so to speak). I had to learn how to relax. However, whenever swam about 17-18 laps of the Olympic pool, I started to doze off. My head would not turn enough to breath, and I would start feeling water entering my mouth, which quickly woke me up again.

I found a way to do long swims without going anywhere. I would us a soft rubber hose around my feet. It tied to a rope and anchored to a fence post. I would swim for about half an hour before I started to feel a bit of rubbing on my ankles - then I stopped.

When I lived inland, I would swim on a bend in the river. I would find a spot where the water flow equaled my swimming speed. The further out of the bend, the faster the water flowed.

Hello nonameslob.

Sounds very exciting. It reminds me of my early days as a cyclist. I got caught up with a bunch of cyclists who were passing me. I pushed harder to stay with them. Soon I was on a high, travelling faster than I ever had. Got caught up in the slipstream. I never wanted it to stop. After that ride, all I wanted to do was to race my bike with others.

It was a long time after, I came across another experience that was very different for me. It was less exciting, yet all enjoyable. Nothing was a blur, but all clear awareness. But then again, everybody experiences 'the zone' differently, yet many people do share some similarities.