Seeking Imperfect Rides

2020 challenge - embracing cold, windy, rainy bike rides.

By Chris Palmquist

When confronted with an uncomfortable situation, the best athletes are able to “re-frame” how they look at it. Instead of dreading a race day with extremely hot conditions, an athlete might change the narrative for the upcoming day. “Hot days are my superpower!” “Extreme conditions are an opportunity to put more distance on my competitors.” “I love the heat. I love the heat. I love the heat.”

The story that we tell ourselves has a very real effect on how we intrepret our surroundings. Most of us are overly negative in our story-telling to ourselves. What would you think if I told you that it is quite easy to simply swap that negative story with a positive spin? This re-framing will help you feel much better about that day, that race or even an entire season of chaos and disappointments such as 2020.

My 2020 goals have all revolved around lowering stress, increasing health and finding the joy in each day. One of my goals is to keep riding as our Chicagoland weather turns into winter. I’ve been riding through rain, pushing into prairie wind and adding layers to stay warm in the cold. Through my living room window, the day might seem dreary, but as soon as I am pedaling down the road, it becomes beautiful.

I am having fun conquering more weather challenges and redefining what it means to have a “great ride.” My great rides now might be just a few miles. They might be ridden in loops within 7 miles from my house. They might be after dark. They sometimes happen in the rain. Many are solo, some with just a friend or two.

As I ride these imperfect rides, I am focused on the moment. Look at that tree! Feel the wind! Check out that sound. I have taken photos and stopped to ponder. My brain stops spinning, and I feel such gratitude for my health and ability to ride. I have appreciation for every tree and grass and animal that I see along the way.

What story can you swap to find more joy and fitness in this season? How can you re-frame what you are experiencing into an opportunity? Look for the “imperfect rides” and make them your secret weapon in this challenging year.

Lessons from the Indoor Trainer

It was the third, dark week of February and the wind chills were frigid. We’d been gathering twice a week since early December to ride 90 minutes on Computrainers and the thrill was gone. As I unlocked the studio and turned on the lights, the thermostat read 51 degrees inside. We shivered as we bolted our bikes into place and turned on some music.

I clicked the start button and we began to pedal through a long, gradual warm up. Immediately the grumpy comments stopped and we started to tell the stories that had occurred to us since our last ride. Within a minute or two, we were laughing out loud. Somehow that warm up transformed our moods from, “Why, didn’t I stay in bed?” to “We are lucky to be able to ride strongly together today.”

The course that I had written was another tough one. 40 minutes of broken intervals at sub-threshold. “Comfortably uncomfortable.” Too strong for conversation but at each rest interval we continued with the stories and laughter. Today we talked about everything from photography to brain science to river otters. And as we connected socially, we knocked off one interval at a time.

At the beginning of the ride, the upcoming challenge felt very daunting. But as we rode, we got stronger. Because we had each other, we all finished the ride.

This experience is one that repeats itself over and over in the lives of athletes. The lessons here are many:

• The hardest part is showing up - turn off your rational thinking and just go get that workout done

• Workout friends and workout conversations are the best - seek these people and opportunities

• Completing a hard workout makes the rest of the day better

• Riding partners make hard rides possible, especially on a trainer

In a couple of months, spring will arrive here in Illinois, and we will get out on the trails and roads with the strength of this winter work to push against the headwinds. But right now, it is the laughter that will carry us through the long winter.