Mountain Biking, Winning, Stop Comparing Yourself to Others
At BetterRide we define winning while mountain biking as doing your personal best. Not just showing up to ride but doing the best you can on any given day. I learned this when I coached for the Steamboat Spring Winter Sports Club. Despite coaching more Olympians that any other city in America the SSWSC defined winning as, “Doing your personal best”. The wise coaches who shaped the SSWSC understood that 99% of their athletes were never going to make a living at the sport and there were bigger things to be taught than just coming in 1st place. This is a great lesson for life too. If you do your best at what ever you are doing (working, playing, learning, etc.) you will be satisfied and happy. If you slack off you will be disappointed, it really is that simple.
Mountain biking can be very competitive, even those who have never raced and probably never will. Many mountain bikers compete to have the best bike, many group rides turn into the Wednesday Night World Championships, strava is all about competing and then of course there is actual mountain bike racing. The thing is, we can’t control other riders, they might be more skilled, more fit, more determined, etc. but we can control our own performance. If you give it your honest best shot, you should be happy with your performance, no matter how you did. An example from my life comes from snowboard racing. Back in 1991 my behavior confused a few of my friends/competitors, one weekend I won the race and was visibly disappointed and the next weekend I got second place and was elated. A few friends said, “Gene, I don’t understand it. You won last weekend and looked frustrated and this weekend you got beat but look really happy!” I had to explain to them I don’t race to win, I race to push myself, learn and improve. The first weekend I won but I didn’t ride my best. In other words, I got lucky, my competitors didn’t ride their best either. The following weekend, even though I took second place I had the best run of my life! It was amazing, to this day it was my best athletic performance of my life. “But you got beat my Del”, one of my friends said. I remember my reply, “Del, is god! I had the best run of my life and Del smoked me! Did you see my run?! It was amazing! I booted every gate (meaning I went so straight that the only thing going around the gate was my board, my boots hit every gate)! That was the best run of my life!”
What I can’t understand is people who are okay with not doing their best. They spend 4, 6, 10 thousand dollars on a bike yet are okay riding way below what they are capable of. A restaurant manager years ago told me, “Gene, whether you are a janitor or president of the US, if you do your job to the best of your ability you will go home satisfied”. To this day that might of been the best advice I have ever received.
Stop comparing yourself to other and just focus on being the best you can be. You don’t need a carbon bike or a carbon wheelset (and neither of those will make you happy) what you need to do is focus on being the best you can be, that will always lead to happiness. When I turned pro at 29 I actually thought I could make a living at it. I quickly realized most of my competitors were younger, fitter (I have asthma) and more experienced I wasn’t likely going to make it to the top of the sport. That didn’t dampen my enthusiasm though, I loved pushing myself to see how close I could come to the best in the world. Be realistic and set performance goals not outcome goals as you can’t control how others perform but you can control how well you perform! Be your best and nothing else matters. Doing your best while mountain biking, winning!
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