I HATE BIKING...

Today my dad took me on a bike ride- to help me practice cadence and get stronger for the biking portion of the triathlon. Well, lets just say that since I was about 5, I have despised biking. I always somehow fall or get launched off. Story of my childhood- and the story continues.

We began on a dirt trail that warned, "Be aware of rattlesnakes" which freaked me out and made me concentrate on the sides of the trail rather than what was in front of me. If you have never been mountain biking before, there are usually a ton of rocks up the trail, as you can imagine, me looking around for snakes and not paying attention to the rocks in front of me posed a serious problem. I racked myself several times and fell off into the prickly grass- my dad tried so hard not to laugh and to keep encouraging me but I kept getting more and more frustrated which made me more and more unstable on the bike.

The thing that sent me over the edge was the last hill of the trail- which I was not aware of. I was coming down the hill and shifted my gears to a higher gear thinking there was more downhill- stupid move because you need lower gears to get up hills. So I hit the hill in high gear and literally stood on end of my back tire and then plopped smack down on my back- and yes, the bike followed suit and smashed down into my ribs. I was so upset that I cried- Its not that it hurt as much as I was frustrated because this was so hard for me.

My dad pulled me back up and said, "Sometimes you gotta just get some speed and keep pedaling- no matter what is in front of you." This hit me in a special way because it applies to everything. True, I am not the best at biking but if I would have focused more on just pedaling and gaining momentum rather than being bad or weak, than I probably would not have fallen as much. In sum, athletes must understand that a deliberate and slow cultivation is the only way to success. Every day you just need to keep at it- this mind set will not change the difficulty of your situation but it will make it a heck of a lot easier to get through it.