I'm a Leader not a Follower

Joy here…I've been trying to get into the habit of heading out on Saturdays and Sundays to ride my bike up a 15km climb nearby; on a good day it takes me around 54minutes to complete the climb, and on a bad day it takes me around 58minutes.  One of the women who I've met on this bike ride has a Personal Best time up the hill of 49:30, and some people take over 2 or even 3 hours to complete the climb.

I usually ride with The Man, but sometimes some other friends join us.  And I've learned something important about myself on these rides.

I'm a leader not a follower.

What I mean is that, when someone races past me (or us), going full-steam ahead, The Man is often motivated to chase them down.  When someone better at something - even something non cycling related - appears in his sights, it is his habit to pursue them and do what it takes to be able to improve so that he can be competitive.  It is a trait that I certainly admire in him.

It is a trait I don't have.

My bike stats for today's ride.

You see, when someone rides past me going fast, my automatic response is "good for you!"  Often I'll cheer someone on, or give them encouragement.  And when The Man urges me to chase them down, I find that I actually ride slower than when I just ride at my own pace.

And when am I fastest?

It's not when I'm chasing someone, and it's not even when I'm just riding along without any goals (as I mention in this blog post that I don't do well without clear goals).  In fact, I ride fastest when I think someone is chasing me.

Are you the one who chases, or are you the one
who is chased?

I first noticed this last summer when I was riding in the park in Ottawa and the group of male cyclists gave me a head start, and I expected them to breathe down my neck at any moment; when, in fact, it took them a good, long time to catch up to me.  And then a couple of weeks ago, we started ahead of some other friends of ours, and the whole time I expected them to catch up with me, but they never did.  Today, The Man had to complete a Time Trial up the climb, and so we only rode together for about 10 minutes, and then he headed back down to the bottom to do his warm up and then ride hard to the top.  I expected him to come roaring past me at any moment.  And before I knew it, I was at the top of the climb and hadn't been caught.  I finished in 53:49, a new PB for me.

I don't know what's the psychology behind chasing or being chased, but I'm becoming more and more comfortable with the fact, that I'll do much better if I feel like I'm being chased than if I have to get out there and chase someone else.  I think, in life, there are chasers and those who are chased.

And I suspect that this is a life lesson for me, not just an insight of how to get the best cycling performance out.

Now what exactly that life lesson is, I don't quite know…but surely it's something deep and insightful, right?

Over and out,
Joy