Mastery Moment: Century Ride

"Can I cycle 100 miles?" I wondered.

I'm in the midst of a completing a 300-day coaching certification program. In order to?earn certification, everyone in our coaching class is?required to complete an "Energetic Best" endeavor. The rule is your?endeavor has to be?a challenge?you've never done before and one that's going to be a stretch goal to achieve.?

The creators of the coaching program all register to do?a Spartan Race as an Energetic Best endeavor. It's?a way for them to?commemorate the end of the class, and?they invite the entire class of coaching certification candidates to do the race at the same time. Coaching candidates can however,?choose not to do the Spartan Race and instead, submit another?idea for consideration.?

I wasn't ready to commit to flying to Los Angeles to do the Spartan Race with many of my classmates, so as an avid (but relatively new) cyclist,?I chose to submit a 100 mile bicycle ride as my?Energetic Best endeavor. It was approved!?I was?officially?committed to the challenge and for the next few weeks I'll share here what I learned by doing it.?

Lesson Number One: Ignorance and Inexperience Can Work In Your Favor

You know the myth?about how the physics of a?bumble bee should make it impossible for it to fly, but the bee doesn't know that, so he flies anyway? Well that myth?has been debunked and there is a scientific basis for the bumble bee's flying ability. However, I feel a bit?like a bumble bee?in this case because it's?what I didn't know that had me propose riding 100 miles on my bike in a single day and succeed.

First, I'm a pretty?new cyclist, at only?about 17?months in the saddle.

Second,?I?had never ridden more than?50 miles?in a day.

Third, I was scheduled to be in a different city?without a bicycle?for?the entire month preceding the ride.?

Fourth, I was also scheduled to attend a family wedding?the night before the ride.

The funny part is I was so clueless, I didn't even take any of these factors into consideration when I proposed the 100 mile?ride. I just went?on pure naive faith. I figured I'd?ridden 50 miles so I'll just do?that twice. (When I said?ignorance can work in your favor, this is what I'm talking about - LOL I'm funny.)

A?more experienced cyclist?might have considered?how hard it would be to double my personal best after a month of no training AND doing it the morning after attending a wedding. A?more experienced cyclist probably would have known better than to propose a 100 mile ride at all under those?constraints.?But?because I didn't know what I didn't know, I went for it.

After dancing my booty off at the wedding (in heels), I went to bed around midnight, so the morning of the ride, I was working with 7 hours sleep. Not too bad!

The forecast called for rain all day and my cycling partner checked in with me to see if I was still planning to do the ride. I had already determined that barring an actual tornado, I would not be deterred by weather.

We met at 8am at our starting point, loaded the bikes off the vehicles, got dressed with helmets and shoes and got to riding. Our ride took us 8 hours and 17 minutes. It rained the entire time, it was cold, there were several wildlife encounters and a flat tire along the way. It was definitely hard, but ultimately we finished the ride and felt absolutely victorious!

Calling back to the lesson for today of how ignorance and experience can work in your favor, had I been a more experienced rider, I might have known too much and not even tried. But because I was inexperienced I didn't know what I didn't know and I ended up hitting my goal on the first attempt.

So?I ask you... have you ever wanted to set a goal but you had just enough experience to know?the odds were against you, so you didn't?even try? Remember experience is?incredibly valuable in many situations and for many reasons; but?the blissful ignorance of?inexperience?is sometimes exactly inspires you to take on a?challenge and believe you can win.

Health and Ar?te,

Monica

PS:?Email me "TEAM" for info on group coaching for your business team?and "MOMENTUM" to be invited to my monthly Momentum Meetup self-mastery Zoom!

Monica Ricci?spent 20 years as an organizing and productivity consultant, speaker and trainer. Today she?coaches busy professionals and business teams, replacing unproductive habits with powerful ones so they can create the life and business they desire and deserve. Monica enjoys learning, baseball, travel and high quality butter.?