Having recently turned my attention away from my own skills development to begin focusing on helping others, I often feel like I am going backwards on the bike. This year, for the first time, I am eligible to compete in the Veterans category and I think we can all agree that age and accumulating responsibilities outside of racing are two of the most worn out excuses on the trails. And I have certainly claimed them both myself! In recent times, I have been having to put my ego aside and accepting that some things that were once well within my level of ability are now outside of my skill set. It’s not easy and, at times, extremely frustrating and demoralising. Personal anecdotes aside, many riders at every level go through peaks and troughs in their careers and for many different reasons. While enjoying the good times is easy, it can be difficult to find satisfaction when things aren’t going so smoothly on the bike.

Celebrating personal wins is something that mountain bikers do best. It’s not just our own achievements that get us pumped, but others’ too. When things are going well, it’s high fives all around! But it’s pretty easy to get down on your riding too. Sometimes we just have a bad day, conditions aren’t great, we haven’t been riding much, or maybe one section of trail is just psyching us out big time. It’s times like these we can become fixated on the bad stuff and forget to pat ourselves on the back for the good things we do…