Just Keep it COOL

Now that I am sponsored I feel a stronger obligation than before to improve myself and to push myself, to get myself out there as a cyclist. I've had a love/hate relationship with mountain biking. I love it when I can ride a trail, become one with my bike and surprise myself. I hate it when I bobble my bike, nervously ride off a trail unable to hold a line or nearly injure myself flying over my handlebars. But hey, there's this local Cincinnati Off-Road Alliance race series. Maybe I'll give it a shot, get some visibility for the store and get some handling ability for cyclocross (my true love).

I was pre-riding the trails at Tower Park with Bridget and my friend Joe on Saturday. There were a couple tough sections were I was very unlucky and really bobbled and couldn't stay in the saddle. I tend to curse myself aloud and get really upset, making poor decisions that cost myself more time. The same thing happened a few times in cyclocross races.

But there were sections where I fell in love again with mountain biking. "Whoa! I didn't think I could ride that!" I told the clump of high tree routes or 90 downhill turn. When I hit the bad sections I made myself remember the good ones and decided not to get all worked up anymore and to:

KEEP IT COOL

Hopefully, this will be another life lesson taught to me by a bike...

By the way, I ended up racing my first Mountain Bike race in beginner. I had a great time. They took out the rough sections and I had a blast just hanging in there still surprising myself. Unfortunately my run in second place ended as my tire pinch-flatted on a fast, rocky downhill section. But instead of moping and pushing my bike back kicking myself I decided to run it in like a champ. Gotta keep the chin up — my motto for the day was to be Obama on a mountain bike.