Cycling, and Personal Growth: How Pushing Your Limits Can Empower You

Knowing one's capacity or potential is a priceless security in oneself. From my personal experience, I have found that cycling has allowed me to push my capacity to more expansive places than I ever thought possible. It has been a tangible means for me to see my progress and what I can do. The mix of passion and determination has taken me to places in cycling that are extremely gratifying.

One event that truly highlighted this for me was my first attempt at the Quarter Horse race to Purgatory. I took on this personal challenge when I found my way back to fitness. Using Durango Sports Club spin classes to prepare myself, I jumped in with my Fixed Gear Single-speed bike, which was the only bike I had at the time.

At the starting line, I received quite a few questioning looks and some snarky "Good Luck" comments. But with my heart beating hard in anticipation of the whistle, I started pushing the heavy gearing I had on my bike north. I chased down those ahead of me, got into the groove, and narrowed my senses to my body and the road ahead. The energy of that many cyclists and the excitement of the ride was thick and invigorating. I rolled into a group of riders that were pulling about the same pace I found myself rolling at, and four of us held tight all the way out to Shalona Hill.

Through this experience, I learned that there is so much inner drive and power harnessed by what's inside. I started to climb and maintained a good pace to keep the effort from getting harder. I picked one person ahead of me and chased them down, and as I caught them, I picked another. I kept this up till we crested the hill just before Needles store. Pushing my body and mind to expand my capacity, I found another chance to see what I could do. With a fixed gear bike, there is no coasting, so my next push was the downhill section passing Needles and the Sows Ear. I was able to keep pace with a few that I had held with through the race to this point. My pedals spun up to an RPM of maybe 180. I had no idea I could do that and hold it.

As I pushed up the entrance to Purg, I found more to pull from and hammered to the finish. I was second in the category I raced in and had an incredible mix of emotions. I realized that I was able to set a goal and achieve it with minimal resources. And not just achieve it but do far better than I thought possible. With surprise and tons of stoke, I was able to cultivate a new identity of myself and what I was capable of. That spark ignited a drive to share what I had learned in that process.

You have the power within you, take a chance on yourself!