Follow up and Fear

Follow up

Since my last post a friend of mine updated his mountaineering blog and two lines in it stuck out for me as being relevant to my previous post. “I suppose as you become more involved and talented in your hobbies, your goals inevitably become more ambitious.” (James Roddie. Glencoe Mountaineer) This first quote is that thing of the better you do the harder you push yourself and the more you do to make it come about and the higher you aim, I’d guess even the top athletes in our sport still have days where they look outside and think I don’t want to do this but the knowledge that there’s someone else out there already doing it pushes them to train longer and harder.

Gee Atherton about to win at Fort William

“The possibility of achieving a dream is always more important than that extra hour in bed.” (James Roddie. Glencoe Mountaineer). This quote amuses me coming from James, as he has always been pretty driven about what he does, finishing a shift at 1am getting changed and going straight up a mountain to take pictures of the sunrise. However for me it’s something I struggle with, the thoughts of ‘I don’t actually have to get up’ and as I often don’t get to sleep before 3 am the call of the extra hour is often too appealing. Maybe I should write this on my bedside table as a reminder. Which leads me on to the comment Claire left.

Unfortunately due to the nature of my work I can’t pick set days apart from one day I try to ensure is my day of every week however the last week or so following what Claire said I’ve picked days to go out when I got my rota for the week and kept to them (apart from one day). Buying proper lights does seem like  definite way forward however they cost money I don’t have/need to spend on other things, though my current lights are good enough to use on the road so may start doing that, it’s either that or start running. Racing gives me something to aim for, I’m not a competitive person but making the decision to take part in a race gives me something to aim for. Cheers for the comment Claire it’s definitely given me ideas and it’s good to hear other peoples thoughts.

Fear

What I have noticed in the last couple of weeks is I’m not hitting things as hard as I did before my crash the other week, while I’m out on my bike I’m telling myself it’s down to it being wet and slippy but I recognise the thoughts in the back of my head that are the beginnings of fear.

In some ways this tint of fear is helping as I’m concentrating on riding things smoothly rather than just smashing them as hard as I can however through my experiences in kayaking I need to make sure the fear is just a slight background whisper rather than something that holds me back. In kayaking I got to a stage where I was very confident in my boating and paddling a lot of difficult rivers and rapids unfortunately I had a series of incidents which knocked my confidence culminating in two very big swims out in the French Alps, now my confidence is pretty low and I struggle to make myself do anything that might make me tip over.

I’ve tried several ways to rebuild my confidence but find as soon as I push myself I let the fear take over and that makes me make mistakes which again knocks my confidence back down again, so at the moment I’m consciously not paddling anything hard and trying to do more teaching and river leading to build up my basic level of faith in my own abilities.

From this

to this.

There are many people to take inspiration from in this in mountain biking though, first and foremost (for me anyway) is Dan Atherton, having broken his neck on a jump he’s back on his bike racing World Cup rounds as soon as he can, also Rachel Atherton who has had a bunch of injuries and is still riding hard enough to be one of the best riders in the world. The list goes on from Sam Hill to Matti Leikhonen who is back on his bike after his massive crash in the Nordic Downhill Championship. That’s just the pro’s I’m sure we all have friends who have taken a big crash and jumped back on their bikes or even outside of biking, those who have bounced back from something big to get straight back on with life.

Speaking of big crashes I’m now sporting a wrist band from http://scottshepherd-riderdown.weebly.com/  check it out and show your support through the Facebook page and @RiderDown_Scott on Twitter.

Getting motivated.

The nights are turning, no they have turned dark, the clocks have gone back the weathers not so great, so how do we get ourselves to get out on our bikes?

Some people are in the mindset of being able to jump on their bikes no matter what, it’s a certain drive and passion for the sport that I’m somewhat jealous of. The biking season is over no matter your discipline it is very much the off season. There are no inspiring new videos from world cup rounds or tours to watch, Ok re-runs on Freecaster and You Tube can help and there are always sick videos like 3 Minute Gaps to watch but when it’s wet and cloudy and dark it can take some effort to get out on your bike.

This week I finished work at 3pm one day and realised the sun was shining and I had a couple of hours of daylight left to do something with. I also knew it was going to be muddy and there’s a lot of fun to be had getting absolutely filthy on the bike. I headed down to the Pump Track where there were a couple of school kids messing around on their way home then headed up to Ashton Court where I had the place to myself. It was the first time I’d been there when there wasn’t loads of other people and it was great not having to keep half an eye over my shoulder for better faster riders coming through. The ground was slick enough that to look at the brakes was to send you sideways on the corners, there were deep puddles and the tracks disappeared under layers of mud lain down off previous tires. I got home coated in mud and very glad I’d gone out however on other days when it’s not so sunny I can struggle to psyche myself up for it and I’m guessing from the emptiness of Ashton Court that day I’m not alone.

I try and keep in mind that it’s now winter and the weather can’t be guaranteed so if a decent day comes along you’ve got to jump on it, this still doesn’t always cut it when your warm and cosy in bed and have no reason to get up. Every ride I go on reminds me of how much fun can be had in the mud and wet of winter and thinking of previous rides can help inspire me to get out and have another one, on top of this I’m trying hard to improve my fitness to race next year and having taken a week out after my crash the other week I noticed how quickly I lost what I’d gained so I see every missed chance as a step backwards, and the fitter I am the more I‘ll enjoy the riding. In those terms I guess it’s easier for the pro riders as every time they don’t train one of the other riders will be and that can make seconds of difference on the competitive circuit, for the rest of us it’s just got to be a personal thing.

As the biking season closes the kayaking season begins so that takes up some of potential riding time and certainly takes up more of the time of the guys I usually go out with plus they work 9-5 jobs which means during the week it’s dark when they get home and none of us have good enough lights to go out in the dark, as much as it seems like a lot of fun. Getting out on your own is much easier in terms of organisation but much harder in terms of motivation.

(The rewards of getting out on your bike can be stunning views)

So what do we do to get ourselves out the door? Remember previous fun rides in the conditions you face, think of how much you’ll enjoy it and what you’ll lose by not going out. Watch the videos we have and stuff you can watch over the internet. Look to the people who inspire you and think of what they’d be doing.

Remember all it takes is to walk out the front door with your bike.
(Please leave any suggestions and ideas on how you keep motivated on the comments)