If you’ve paid attention to our past and current racing schedule for the NashvilleCyclist.com racing team you quickly realize we compete in events that will stretch our abilities. 

I keep my finger on the pulse of the racing scene east of the Mississippi, and if an event has the reputation of quality and competition then it’s on my radar to compete in at some point.  We may or may not achieve success as measured by victories, but each race we attend we do arrive at a newly established benchmark for our team.

At an early age I learned how valuable competing against the best impacts long-term athletic development.  Growing up I traveled all over the South and Midwest playing baseball against the best youth teams in the country.  My coaches would seek out the toughest tournaments hosting the strongest teams and we’d load up in vans, suit up, and then get after it.  In only three months one summer we won six separate week-long tournaments after playing doubleheaders every day.  Everyone competing in those games got better as that development propelled us all forward to reach greater heights.  Those games built up our experience level, our strength and ability, and our confidence to become our best.  Had we not traveled outside our area code we would have remained mediocre at best.  I seriously doubt I would have reached the professional level of baseball without those years of youthful experience. 

Believe it or not there are a lot of similarities between baseball and bicycle racing when it comes to the development of one’s ability.  Both sports reward consistent hard work, patience, persistence and discipline.  They require the athlete to repeat workouts and drills countless times over in order to develop the adaptations, muscle memory and instincts to be successful.  Both also possess a very passive-aggressive explosiveness during competition, which really appeals to me because both sports reward being calm and cool under pressure – until you must unleash what you’ve been holding back.  In baseball you must build up incredible hand-eye coordination just to handle the basics, and in bike racing you must build up sufficient mitochondria just to handle the endurance side of the sport.  Without the fundamental building blocks you don’t stand a chance. 

The ability to effectively compete in either sport takes years of development.  If it was so easy then everybody would sign up and do it, but neither are and require a level of commitment only a few are willing to make.  I chose to transition from baseball into bicycling for a lot of reasons, but one important one was because it was difficult and not everyone was willing to work hard enough to become good at it.  Some might call that elitist, especially when you reach Cat 1 status, but I choose to surround myself only with people willing to commit to reaching their personal best – whatever that level may be for the individual. 

In both sports, if you aren’t prepared to patiently stick to it and allow progress to slowly take place then you are bound for endless frustration.  Baseball is a game full of failure; succeed in hitting 30% of the time and you’re considered a huge success, but in bike racing our winning percentage has an even lower rate of success!  Some bike racers never earn a victory, but yet still reach a level of personal happiness because they reached their own full potential. 

Ultimately our success is more greatly impacted by our response to failure.  How you get up off the mat, dust yourself off and get back into the ring says more about you than any other successful strength you possess.  Take the knowledge learned from your disappointments and avoid repeating the same mistakes.  Failures help us to determine strategies that do not work in order to learn successful ones that do.  Nobody can argue with truthful outcomes can they?  Despite setbacks, disappointment and failures those athletes who repeatedly get off the mat, get back in the batter’s box and pin on a race bib number possess a character trait I like to call “stick-to-it-ness.” 

Some athletes are born with stick-to-it-ness while others must learn it the hard way.  If stick-to-it-ness is never learned then I’ll show you someone who either complains a lot or wrongly believes life should come easier to them without hard work.  Sure, they may be there to compete and give you the impression they’ve got a high level of stick-to-it-ness, but their lack of commitment when you aren’t watching is the determining factor in their compounding failures.  Another impacting attitude on one’s stick-to-it-ness is unjustified expectations in relationship to where their ability is in the moment.  Rewards do come at a personal cost.  If you aren’t willing to invest the patience and hard work to achieve rewards then you should not expect to achieve your full potential. 

What does this have to do with my opening remarks? 

What got you here won’t get you there.  I challenge you to challenge yourself to aim higher, put yourself into difficult situations, get slightly in over your head, and find out what you’re truly made of – not just as a bicyclist but more importantly as a person.  It does not matter if you’re 20 or 60 years old because we are forever evolving as people.  Bicycle racing is the perfect opportunity to learn about yourself while simultaneously stretching your boundaries of personal growth.  I attempt to do this in nearly everything I do and strongly believe I am a better man because of it.

Honestly, is there any better way to achieve personal knowledge of oneself than on a bicycle?  Well, I can think of only one other – in the batter’s box.