When you’re cycling up a steep hill, a few things are happening with your body and head. Your body is strained in every way, your legs are running on autopilot because your perception of movement seems to have been replaced with a burning fire from your calves to glutes. Your core is clenched, fighting to keep you stabilized and upright. Your mind is telling you all the giving up phrases, “there’s no way I can finish this”, “this is impossible”, it’s doubting your body’s capabilities and looking for an excuse to stop. Sounds like a great situation doesn’t it!? And people do this daily through Marin county bike trails…willingly. Why? Because hills in cycling are a resource that forces a cyclist to work their ass off. With sprinting or weight lifting or HIIT training, your mind can trick you into stopping before your body has maxed out. With hill cycling, stopping could send you zig zagging down a busy road (speaking from personal experience in the lovely but intense Marin headlands), straight into another cyclist/car, or if you’re in CA, down some unfriendly rocks into the ice-cold bay. You don’t get to choose whether to keep going. You have to. It’s a useful tool for those who might find it more difficult to push to physical limits at their own doing, i.e. most of us. Put yourself in a situation where the environment has to choose when you get to stop, not your mind.
You don’t get to choose your hills. They come around the corner and once you get going, stopping could be seriously harmful and might set you back further than when you started. Fighting to the top brings you to that beautiful view and a minute to rest. Yay, another life metaphor! Challenges come out of no where, shying away or backing out too early will never move you forward. You’ll stay stagnant at the bottom, no scenic view for you. If you tried to pick your hills, you’d seek out a bunch of baby hills leading to somewhere less fulfilling. When that next big one comes around the corner, be grateful for the opportunity and take it on full force. You’ll be glad you did.