My legs spun propelling me forward whilst my thoughts flew back a few years to my first cycle race ever. I was young then and not very fit but that never bothered me. Actually, I was planning on sprinting my way through the entire route and thus beat all of the eager boys in front of me. That didn't happen, however, I learnt a very important lesson on that ride:
If you don't concentrate whilst riding through a rocky section then you'll probably fall off of the bike.
I've learnt many other lessons since then. Some of them are obvious like: if you don't clean your bike the dirt and mud will make your cycle less pleasant and another one is that if you don't wear gloves you can't really complain if you fall and lose some of the skin on your hands.
These are valuable lessons however, as I pedaled up the first (proper) hill of the day I realized that I hadn't quite learnt all of the lessons that there was to learn. So, I kept my mind open as my legs tired and my back was starting to hurt. To be honest, the ride wasn't easy especially since I wasn't too fit and so when I got the opportunity to stop halfway up the hill. I took it. I was breathless, my entire body already hurt and frankly I didn't want to go through the same pain again just to do the second lap. But, I bit my lip and carried on around the dam and up the slope past the starting banner. I had eight kilometers left. Eight kilometers up rocky hills and then back down again. It wasn't my legs that got me through that second lap. It was my mind. And that was the lesson I learnt that morning, your mind is your strongest tool. You can get through a race even if you're not too fit as long as your mind is calm and determined, however, you can't even ride half the distance if you're fit but your mind falters and your will isn’t there.
So, if you're tired and feel like giving up just remember "success is how high you bounce after you hit [rock] bottom."
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