Growth mindset vs cold hard (wet) reality

The times you attempt something slightly beyond your current skill level can be the biggest opportunities for growth. You push yourself that little bit beyond your comfort zone, and surprise yourself with what you can do. You go home with increased confidence.

Other times, maybe the gap is just a bit too big, or maybe you’re just not in a “growth mindset” kind of mood. And you actually go backwards. Things that should be well within your grasp suddenly make you question yourself. You go home feeling like you shouldn’t even have tried.

I had one of those second kind of days on the mountain bike on Saturday.

There’s a gnarly little bit of single track up the hill behind Wesburn called “Hey Hey My My”. It’s only about 4 km long, but you climb nearly 300 metres in the first 2 km—and then come down again. So there’s lots of tight, steep switchbacks and steep flowing gravity track. I’ve done it once before and struggled, but I figured my MTB skills were way better now.

But it had been raining all day, and the soft clay of the upper Yarra foothills was slick and sloshy. My legs were a bit zapped from climbing Back of Donna the day before. I was going so slowly it was hard to keep my balance, and stalled on more and more switchbacks. By the time I got to the top and caught my breath, I felt like I needed trainer wheels.

Anyway I headed back down (what else are you going to do?) and predictably binned it on one of the steeper sweeping corners. Rock gardens and drops I’d normally eat for breakfast had me getting off and walking. I regarded some of the A-line jumps—which I wouldn’t have attempted on a good day—with abject horror.

Any time spent out on a bike is fun, but this was about as little fun as you can have and still be having fun.

What’s the lesson? I guess if anything it’s that skill development is not linear, nor monotonic. You’re going to have bad days, when it feels like previous advances have deserted you. Get over it, get back on the bike. Set backs are only temporary.

Oh, and.. buy knee pads. I’m sick of scrapes that get infected and take weeks to heal.