what is your personal guarantee worth?
Every spring
on the hook
Every spring
what are you most resistant to?
Every spring I embark on a nasty hill training program with my oldest client and good friend Scott Darling. At 63, Scott is still a beast on a mountain bike. He seems to have an inexhaustible well of mental toughness and physical resilience and generally grinds his way up tough hill climbs without stopping for breaks or complaining. He can be hard to follow as he never appears to suffer.
Our program consists of running laps up and down what is known as the Husky Hill for several weeks. The road winds it way up a gravel road to a gas plant and gives us access to dozens of great downhill trails. Husky did not build the road for us. The took the most direct route to their site whcih forces up a 12% grade for 3 km. It's a soul-sucking gut punch but our idea was to ride it so often that we desensitized ourselves to the pain.
At the base of the hill on our first lap of the year I said to Scott, "With every fibre of my being I do not want to climb this hill right now". He agreed, but once we agree to go, we both show up and keep going until we get to the top. We keep each other bound to the program.
On this evening I was pretty gassed from a tough week of work. I also hadn't done as much fatbiking over the winter as I usually do, so I was feeling a little on fat side and not very fit. I barely made it to the top, when Scott asked me if I was up for another lap. I said empathically, "not a chance".
Practically speaking, to burn off my winter weight gain and gain back my fitness level, I need to go through about 20 rides that aren't going to feel that pleasant or fun. I just have to force myself to do them. So when Scott suggested that we ride down to the last switch back about a quarter of the way down, I agreed. When we got back to the top of that, he suggested that we ride half way down to the next switch back and then come back up. I was pretty spent after that so we rode back to the base of the hill, but when we got back down I decided to ride back up to the first switch back, thereby completing the equivalent of the second lap that I said I wasn't going to do at the top of the first.
•••
what are you willing to do next?
inspiration comes after the step not before.