Climbing...

- Last year when I got my new road bike. -
All winter I was in my beautiful home state of Colorado...the mountains of Garfield, Pitkin, and Summit counties are some of my favorite places on earth! I spent the winter working on my downhill skiing skills, but more to my like, I spent quite a bit of time skinning up the mountains on my skis. For those of you unfamiliar with skinning, it is basically a big adhesive that you put on the bottom of your skis that allows forward motion but not backward. So....you can climb up the hills, take the adhesive off, and then rip down the hills. SO fun!

Recently I have moved back to northern California and am spending a few weeks in Chico before moving to the Sierras (Lake Tahoe area). Chico is a different world than what I've been in the last several months. There is no snow, the weather is warm, and most of it is fairly flat (compared to CO mountains of course...not quite Kansas style). It's been in the mid 70's for about a week now so I figured today was the day to bust out the road bike and change my climbing from skis to on the bike. It all started out great, my legs were feeling awesome. The climb I took is from Chico up to Cohasset. It's about a 2000 vertical climb (nothing crazy, just a good start to the season). By the time I got to about 1500 ft my hamstrings and glutes knew this was a different motion than the last several months.

With a quick thought of wanting to turn around at that point, I dug deep in my gut and knew that I would be disappointed in myself if I quit climbing early. So, I started cranking harder, the faster I go, the faster I'm done, right? Right! About 1:10 out and 45min back...a good ride for the first of the season.

Moral of the story: Keep going even when your mind thinks it's time to quit. Our bodies are stronger than our minds most of the time and will pull through if you put your mind to it. So, when those last few reps of your strength training routine or the last mile of your run seem impossible, KNOW that you can do it and that if you push a bit harder and dig deep in your heart, you'll finish that workout. It will change your attitude, it will get you more fit, and it will make it that much easier next time around.