Operation Don't Be a Chicken

Fear can be tricky. Sometimes I think a little bit of fear can be a healthy thing, in certain situations; a balance between weighing what may or may not be safe vs. taking an important or exciting risk. However, I also believe fear can cause negative stress when we (*cough, cough* ME) tend to analyse, re-analyse, over-analyse and analyse again everything to death. For myself, I do this in many areas of life, as Javelin Daddy can 100% attest to, but as it relates to sports and athletics, I definitely have a few areas of fear that I'm hoping to over come, or at least reduce...

Leading up to a big race 
I lived this during my absolute raceweek meltdown in 2014. I had so much stress leading up the race, that come race day I had absolutely nothing. While I'm racing lots this year, my 'A' races this year are a trail and road race in July and an off-road duathlon in August. I then want to head into cross-country season strong and healthy for the fall. I'm hopeful I can take what I learned back in 2014 so that history doesn't repeat itself.

When I have an injury 
Right now I’m dealing with some Achilles, lower leg, calf, tibial tendinitis issues that have risen from making some "questionable" decisions with my training. My fear with injury (other than injury itself) is not knowing exactly what it is or how it will react to anything and not being able to do what I want to do, when I want to do it. I have a bad habit of jumping to the worst case scenario and working backwards, over obsessing about every little detail.  I know with injuries we need to be cautious and listen to our body, but all that fear and negative energy can’t be good either. I'm trying to shift to a "it's an injury - they happen, it will heal with rest" mindset. (And in the future listening to my body better!)

When I’m mountain biking

Last weekend we got out for our first trail ride (thanks to a mild winter with little snow!); complete with roots, mud, flowy turns and fun features. It was on one of my favorite trails, one that I’m fairly comfortable on and it was beyond awesome, but it was also the one I sprained my knee on last fall and coming back my confidence is a little shaky.

You see the problem with fear is that sometimes it takes over your body, gets in your head and then you do things you wouldn’t normally do. Fear can mess with your confidence, and for someone like me who doesn’t have much to begin with when on a mountain bike, this is pretty big to overcome some days. There are days when I ride a trail and I’m relaxed, fluid and smooth. I can ride the features, bridges, logs etc. with confidence! 

My goal when mountain biking: Smoother than a fresh jar of skippy!

On other days I’m not. I let fear take over – on things I know I can do. I get in my head and my body becomes tight and rigid – not good things for balancing on logs and avoiding trees.

My bottom line: I must stop being a chicken. I’m not saying a little bit of fear isn’t a healthy thing, I strongly believe it is; but in matters of play, training, racing and injury I’m working hard to not be so chicken-like, go for it and trust in what I know!

Race season really heats up in May and I have big goals; I have distances and times I want to nail and have no room for injury, negative crap or other. It’s hard to shift your mind set, but I’m working on it one bridge, one race, one injury at a time.

One of my all-time favorite books and all-time favorite quotes

Operation DON'T BE A CHICKEN is on. I'll let you know how it goes.