This has probably been the best advice I was given in 2017, even if it was at the end of the year. I was riding with friends on black Friday doing that whole opt outside thing. It's fun to turn your mind off of training or work and just let you and your bike flow together. We were on this trail that the last time I rode, I had to unclip/put a foot down/just get off the bike 7 times. I hate doing that, but I wasn't focused on how hard technical it might be, I was just riding with my boys and making sure I didn't let there get a gap. I couldn't help but laugh when I cleared stuff that I was like nope before. It's exciting stuff! Frank chimes up behind me with the brilliant words of "it's pretty amazing what you can do when you hang on for just 10 more seconds." I lowered my number from 7 to 4 that day. And just recently lowered it from 4 to 2.
Now that I am a little closer to O'bannon woods, I just want to go play on the rocks and on the Adventure Hiking Trail (AHT). Every time I have hiked that trail, all I could think was how do people ride this, or even want to ride this trail when you probably have to get off your bike and do a lot of hiking. That's not fun. Well, Kayla who gave up all the time, you were wrong! It is a blast to ride a trail that is going to beat the shit out of you and you keep pushing back. Those 10 extra seconds can give a second wind needed to find the better line and make it up a rutted climb with rocks and roots waiting to trap your wheel. Instead of seeing a steep climb and think that's impossible before even beginning it, you start to say fuck I bet I can at least get to this spot on it. Those 10 seconds can help change your view point from a negative to a positive and opens your riding to a whole new level almost.I always love seeing how mental training in biking can cross over to mental training in life. If we all take 10 more seconds to pause and breath, have more patience, think before judging, we become more open to understanding, enduring more, and not losing our fucking shit all the time. I'm still 1000% learning how to do this. This whole year has felt like I've been trying to hold onto my own strength to keep doing what I love, and I think that because of that struggle, it makes developing mental toughness on the bike a little easier (even though it is still pretty damn hard).
It's nice to be on the side of things where I can start seeing gains again after a year of feeling physically and mentally weak. And every day, if I didn't hang on to a positive thought for 10 more seconds, I would have lost my damn mind to depression and anger while going through chemo and watching all my friends have such great times on their bikes. It's easy to let the negative consume us and give up without really trying. As soon as it gets hard, we tend to just stop and give up. So, whenever you want to give up on that steep climb, that rocky and rooty section, or just getting a ride in at all, give yourself that extra 10 seconds, because at the end of that 10 seconds is another 10 seconds waiting for you to keep going.
