In those days at university, I was fit and young and could pretty much ask my body to do anything that I wanted. A spell in the army in my mid-twenties saw me achieve peak fitness but the focus was never on flexibility or sustainable fitness, more on brute force, carrying ridiculous weights and the ability to run through an injury. This served a purpose at the time, but drilled into me a bad mindset—namely that determination and the ability to endure will always get you through.
Fast forward to my mid-forties and those chickens have come home to roost. Some injuries are still with me, but the mindset is what I am having to adjust and my recent adventures in Yogaland have been an epiphany. What has been holding me back on a mountain bike for a number of years is lack of flexibility (in mind and body) and ingrained bad habits. Un-learning reflex actions and incorrect body posture on the bike is what I’m focusing on these days. Mountain bike coaching, yoga and mindful practice on and off the bike are how I am working at this and 3 or 4 tutorials a week on your website are really helping. I spend a lot of time travelling in my job, so the ability to find some space on the hotel room floor to follow your routines has been incredibly helpful.
This is all work in progress, but I’m wise enough to know that ‘progress not perfection’ is all I need to strive for and by the end of 2019 I’d like to think that I will have greater flexibility, strength and a healthier mindset. It’s certainly a worthwhile objective and a genuine adventure inasmuch as the destination is unknown, but the direction of travel is clear.
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