I remember as a child my mother used to practice meditation or at least attempting it. I’ve tried it a few times, to completely abolish any thought in my head. Most of the time I just thought about not thinking about anything. It’s the kind of thing you don’t notice until after it passed though, kind of like daydreaming; you never know you’re daydreaming until you snap out of it and realize several minutes have passed.
I had a similar experience while riding tonight. I got down into my drops and just pressed my feet into my cages and “gripped” pushing and pulling at every turn of the cranks. I was focusing so much on just how my legs were transferring power to the drivetrain and was not thinking of anything else, the noticable burning in my thighs would also not be apparent until after.
Of course, this kind of effect only happens when you’re not trying to be somewhere at a specific time. There’s something to be said about getting lost in just riding a bicycle and everything else shuts off except for the sound of your lungs burning and the fluttering of wind going past your ear.
Nothing else really matters at that point in time.