Last place.
Being the caboose can sometimes be a lonely zone to inhabit, and last night, I dominated that position on the weekly ride I attend with my friends.
And I loved it.
Just being out in the woods, among friends, doing silly things (last night we all rocked jorts… a particularly goofy look) can sometimes mean a lot more than what place you finished up (or occupied during the entirety of the effort).
Too often, one can get too caught up with winning. Once I realized I wasn’t having a particularly stellar evening on the bike, I settled into what I *could* affect: my attitude, my focus on just having fun, and my ability to fine-tune how smoothly I was riding – since “fast” didn’t seem to be in the cards.
And here’s the deal… I did my best.
It’s challenging to embrace that one’s best sometimes falls short of peak performance. But that doesn’t mean it’s not the best you can do at that moment. And when you can recognize that the only moment you can actually affect is NOW, it’s pretty easy to make adjustments to ensure that you are doing your best – or improving a bit on that moment that just passed.
It certainly helps when you have a loving, patient crew to support you – regardless of how fast you are riding on that particular day.
If you find yourself beating yourself (or someone else) up about perceived poor performance, get in touch with me and we can talk more about how to shift to living more in the moment.
(Thanks to David Banas for the photo. His other glorious photography and documentation of a variety of ill-advised shenanigans can be found on Instagram at @bikesareforriding.)
