One of the not-very-helpful pieces of advice I give inexperienced mountain bikers when they are struggling to clear an obstacle is, “Just let the bike roll over it. Do your best just to stay out of the way.” As you can imagine, this bit of wisdom is usually met with a blank stare, if not a small shake of the head.
But really, it’s true. The bike is a much better bike rider than I am. The bike knows only too well how to ride the lightning.
What’s that you say? The lightning?
Yes, so…”what is the lightning, and why do I want to ride it?” Well, it’s pretty straightforward really. The ‘lightning’ is when things are going unexpectedly well for you, surprisingly well, and you want to ‘ride it,’ by which we mean ‘let it happen.’ There’s something about humans that, when events take a turn for the positive, we immediately question it. Maybe we think we don’t deserve good things to happen to us.
We should, all of us, consider finding a therapist.
Another example, one day I was on a road ride with a group of about eight. Somehow, my buddy Joe and I found ourselves off the front and speeding down a long hill. I said to him, “Hey, we seem to have dropped those guys. We should probably sit up.”
And Joe reached over and put a hand on my hand as I moved to pull the brakes, and he laughed and said, “We don’t touch our brakes when we’re rolling downhill.” This struck me as brilliantly, brutally true, and so we ripped down the hill like a pair of raptors diving on prey. We didn’t pedal, but we didn’t take the gift that had been given to us either.
In a similar vein, you might be out on the mountain bike and in some kind of unmerited flow-state, making obstacles you don’t normally, everything you try coming off like you were born to do it. The worst thing you can do in that situation is begin to think about why you’re having the day you are. The best thing you can do is find the next drop, jump, rock roll or other dirt-based difficultly and apply your newly minted good fortune with all alacrity.
As Elvis said, “A little less conversation, a little more action.”
Oh, but that makes it seem so simple. I apologize if it feels like I’ve said all this before, because I have, and probably better, but it’s maybe just that simple. You want a simpler, more straightforward, less-complicated life ride, ask fewer questions, touch fewer brakes, and when in doubt, pedal.