The Rocks Defeating Me

Fall leaves on one of our local trails this September

My vision slowly blurs around the edges until the only thing I can see is the big rock up ahead and dotted line plotting my crash course into it. I could swerve to the left and miss it, but instead I ride steadily towards it, straight, fast, perfect. I watch it go under my front wheel, my bike rattles loudly and I am swung off balance. But my gaze remains fixed faithfully on the rock. I pass over it with and cheer a little, but I'm already slipping sideways across a second rock.

Defeated.

One of the first things you learn, when trying to mountain bike is "don't look at the rock." The theory being that if you look where you want to go instead of at the looming obstacle before you, you won't hit it. It's a simple piece of advice that I fail miserably at accepting. I will stare at the rock like my life depends on it, and some cases, it might. Then I hit it.

Many times in life we are thwarted by this exact problem. Our goals and ambitions lie just past the rock garden but, sometimes, all we can focus on are the obstacles in our way. The outcome we want is there. The smooth downhill on the other side is merely yards away. But it sits shrouded and unfocused in the shadows of deterrent.

I am not an amazing mountain biker, I love it, but my talent really lies elsewhere. This, I think, makes that whole concept twice as hard. When you're good at something, everything seems so much clearer. You feel nearly invincible and it is relatively easy to look past the hardships when you are so close to your dreams. When you're barreling along on the trail, the rocks are just minor bumps that you glide over effortlessly. But when you are struggling along at a slow pace and your lungs burn, the rocks just seem that much bigger. The hill just that much longer. That is when you have to tear your eyes away from the obstacles in your path. Blatantly ignoring them will never work but concentrating on the way around them will.

It is easier said than done. With a lot of things, I find it nearly impossible, but the breakthroughs always seem to come when I stop looking at the rocks. So don't give up. Whatever your goal is, just keep going. Focus on the positive things and look past the negative.

For me, in nordic skiing, the hardest thing is technique. I can generally power through things but the finesse that wins a race, gets me everytime. My timing and coordination is messed up and there are days when it feels like I just keep ramming my front tire into the rock over and over again. In my brain it turns into a gif, where I come up to the rock patch with a fierce determination and then go over my handlebars in a whir of discombobulation. My goal for these next few months is to stop watching that gif in my head and concentrate on how I am solving the problem, right now. We'll see how it works out.

(Source: Giphy )

Hasta la Vista,
Victoria