Living on the edge

About a month ago I had a heavy fall from my bike. I was descending a mountain road on a rainy day and lost traction with my front wheel. Actually I crossed over the invisible line from the safe side to the dangerous side of life. I like to descend as close to that line as possible. You always imagine you know where it is, but you really don’t know until you’ve crossed it.

It’s the same when you race. I have seen so many people too fearful, to go hard enough to get the results they’d like to achieve. They spend their miserable lives kept in line by their fears. Never game to risk “blowing up” in a race. Never game to give it a go.

You see the same thing happen with investors, always looking up the results of the shots they were not game to make. If you’re not game to risk something, whether it’s investing or racing, fear is pulling your strings.

It’s like being a nice plump labrador lying on the verandah in the sun. If it gets too hot, he moves to the shade, if it gets too cool, he moves back to the sun. Every night the owner walks out with a bowl of the same tasteless packaged dog food. He hates the stuff, but it’s easier to eat tasteless, packaged dog food than to hunt your own like a wolf in the wild. The wolf may go hungry now and then but when he eats, it’s fresh. The fact that he has had to hunt his own food, keeps his spirit alive. His canine relative lying on the verandah eating tastelss, packaged dog food has lost his “spirit” long ago.

I know what I’d rather be.  

I urge anyone out there to keep your spirit alive. Test yourself often. We’ve been drawn to this sport because deep down we want to be tested. Identify what the feeling is when you have really nailed an interval session, given everything. The feeling is satisfaction.

When you’ve raced as hard as you can, risked maybe, not even finishing the race.  When you’ve laid it all on the line. The feeling you have is satisfaction.

Your aerobic base training is not the time to go all out. It’s when you do intervals. Windtrainer efforts or swim speed sets. Running on the treadmill at “the edge”. Be prepared to see how hard you can go before you “blow up”, then see how long it is before you recover. If you regularly “take a risk”, put your reputation on the line in training, you’ll master those fears of failing. You’ll get to feel that satisfaction. The same satisfaction you’ll feel when you race on that edge and take a risk. 

If you’ve taken a risk and you’ve crossed that invisible line and either crashed or “blown up”, don’t beat yourself up, applaud yourself, compliment yourself. Because you’ve been to where only the daring are prepared to go.

You’ve left the verandah with the tastless, packaged dog food and gone out to hunt your own. Your spirit is alive and well.  This is living!