I’m a road cyclist by heart and passion, but on a regular basis I try to push myself outside my comfort zone. I’ve heard that’s where the magic happens!
Every year I try to add a few cyclo cross races – or CX as the inner circle calls it – to my agenda. It’s dirty. It’s hard. And it’s technical! Especially since it so incredibly hard, I’m not really that good at it. But it’s so much fun. And I’ve heard that someone has to finish last 🙂
I’ve done two races recently. The first one I did a beautiful face plant (literally), making me so confused that I had to abandon the race. But on Saturday I was back at Superpokal here in Oslo. No face plants this time and I didn’t even finish last. There were five riders (out 69) behind me. And I had the true honor of being called out on by the speaker as a ‘not so impressive 64th place’. Well – they say bad PR is better than no PR and he did add a good description of Oslo Dawn Patrol and all the work I’m doing there.
I might not be a good CX rider, but I’m quite confident that I’m becoming a better cyclist overall by adding things like this to my repertoire. I don’t care if finish last, as long as I get the training and the fun out of it. And generally, I believe that whatever you do, you should go out of you comfort zone from time to time. At least to get the feel of it. You may discover something great. And if not – it makes it so much better when you are back at your routine.