Enjoy Every Mountain Bike Ride More
As much as you love mountain biking you might not be enjoying it as much as you could be. All because of a simple little instinct all humans have. I won’t bore with the details but in short, we still have many “hunter-gatherer” instincts which GREATLY impact our lives. One of these instincts is to pay a lot of attention to mistakes and “bad” things/situations. I have read this is because mistakes and “bad” things as a hunter-gatherer often meant death (no hospitals and doctors back then plus many predators). Now, many if not most mistakes and “bad” things are not really that important nor serious but try telling that to our ingrained “survival instincts”.
How does this affect you as a mountain biker? Let me start with an example, 14 years ago or so, when BetterRide was five years old, my camps would run until 7pm some days! My thought was give my students a little something extra! I have since learned that quality is way more important than quantity and that we can only take in so much information in one day.
On one of those nine hour days in the hot sun of Fruita, Colorado a very interesting series of events happened to one of my students. Susan was having a great day, first she did her first ever wheelie! Then on Rustlers Loop trail that afternoon she managed to use that wheelie to go up a small rock obstacle (about 8″ high) that she had never made before! She was really excited and explained that she and her husband rode this trail quite a bit and she had always walked that rock! Then, about a quarter of mile further down the trail is managed to cleanly get over a tougher rock obstacle, she was ecstatic! Right before the final climb on Rustlers there is a decent sized rock ledge at a funny angle followed by a few more smaller ledges. This spot has given riders trouble for years and sadly every time I ride the trail it has grown wider with all kinds of attempts to make the obstacle easier. Well, we got to that spot, I demonstrated how to get over the ledges and explained it is just three simple, basic skills (a pedal wheelie and a weight shift while most importantly looking to victory) we learned in our school/drill session that morning in the parking lot. Low and behold, Susan cleared it on first attempt! She was literally jumping up and down with excitement and said, “wow, even my husband has never made that!”
Well, everyone seemed to be having fun so instead of heading back to the parking lot for a wrap up of the day after Rustlers Loop I decided to take the students out for more riding (it was already after 5 pm). Give the students a little something extra! It went fine for the first hour or so but by then everyone was starting to fatigue both mentally and physically. Learning and practicing new skills is mentally exhausting as is spending over eight hours in the hot sun, much of the time exercising. Realizing this I made a beeline for the parking lot but it was too late! On an easy section of singletrack Susan toppled over (at slow speed, she wasn’t hurt) it wasn’t a skill error, simply a lapse in attention. Well, for the next 10 minutes or so all I heard behind me was, “blah, blah, blah, then I fell …” coming from previously stoked Susan.
After 10 minutes of Susan’s whining I realized she was doing something I did all the time, focusing on the one negative thing that happened instead of all the very positive things that had happen that day. So we stopped and I asked Susan, “do you remember how excited you were about 6 hours ago when you did for first wheelie?” She smiled and nodded her head. Then I asked, “how about when you cleared that first rock ledge on the trail?” Now she was beaming, “yeah, that was cool!” she replied. “Then you cleared the second ledge, then the third ledge, the one your husband can’t clear!” I said. By now she was practically glowing, absolutely filled with the satisfaction of doing so many things she had never done in her life that day! “Yeah, that was really cool!” she exclaimed!
After refreshing her memory of all the huge accomplishments she had that day I said, “You know, you are choosing to focus on the one, minor little mistake you made today, mostly because your slave driver coach exhausted you, instead of the four or five huge victories you had today.” She smiled and said, “you’re right!” The rest of the ride back to the parking lot all I heard were positive statements from my students!
The good news is, we choose what we focus on! Unfortunately sometimes it isn’t a conscious decision. So, when those instincts get you focused on a negative thought, catch yourself. Take a deep breath and bring your focus back to the moment or, if you can’t stop thinking about the past at least think of positive things in the past.
Have you ever noticed this happening to you? Tell us about it! If you think this or any other blog article could help a friend or riding buddy feel free to share it.
Create your best ride yet,
Gene
I relaxed, saw the line I wanted to take, found my balance and went through the section very controlled – it was great!
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