What riding my bike taught me about my career

It doesn’t have to hurt

An ill fitting bike can leave you feeling sore and uncomfortable long after your ride is over. An ill fitting role, can be tiring and leave you wondering if you have what it takes, it makes you question yourself. Rather, you might consider questioning the role you’re in. Like bike fit, you should still have to work to ride your bike - but the riding itself helps you gain fitness and confidence to take on longer or more challenging routes. With experience I learned that the only thing that should be sore after rides were my legs, from pedaling. If my hands, shoulders, neck or back hurt it was usually a sign that my bike didn’t fit properly. In your job, this isn’t about ergonomics and the way your desk is set up, its more about whether the actual work is hard and helping you grow, or if its all the other stuff that gets in the way of you doing actual work. This can look like a lot of things, from the culture of the work place, the commute, or the actual tasks in your role you are expected to complete. If those leave you questioning yourself, maybe its worth examining where you feel most of the pain coming from. I for one accepted all the other stuff as just a part of the price I needed to pay to do the work, until all that other stuff took a toll on my health. I know way too many people who were willing to look the other way when other things besides their jobs left them questioning if it was really worth it. That reminds me of the time I fixed up an old Bianchi road bike, my high school dream bike. The problem was it was three sizes too small for me, but I got it for a song. It only took two rides before I realized it was not going to work, for me. Guess what? That bike fit my friend perfectly, and similarly there may be someone else out there for the role your in - just like there’s a role that will fit you better too!

Don’t go alone

Sure, its possible, and probably when you’re starting out riding it can be difficult to keep up with others or you may feel self conscious. But, if you can break through that, you’ll discover that you get more than just fitness out of a ride with other people. Similarly, sharing yourself with your peers and developing friendships with your colleagues that can continue to grow even after you chose to take that new position elsewhere, can lead to the support and encouragement you’ll need to get through your career transitions. A group ride can be just one other person, but I promise, the ride is always more enjoyable when you have others along with you for the adventure. Whether you forgot to bring a spare tube, or extra energy bar, your riding companions will often surprise you with their generosity. Every big ride or race I can look back on is that much sweeter because of the stories I can recall with the friends that shared them. Our work colleagues are no different, if you open yourself up to helping and asking for help along the way.

Enjoy (and plan for) rest stops

I recently completed a lifelong dream of a ride in Belgium. The route I chose wasn’t that long, so when the rest stops came I blew by them. Its no wonder I cramped up in the last 5 miles. Reflecting back, I know that was a stupid mistake. I wasn’t racing, it was a miserable, cold, rainy and windy spring day - <sarcasm> ideal riding conditions </sarcasm>. The rest stops were planned by others to help everyone who needed water and calories…including me. I just chose to push myself. My advice for you, don’t do the same. I wasn’t worried about losing time and I certainly wasn’t competing with anyone - I just thought I didn’t need to. In your career, you might treat your work schedule the same - everything is equally important and its all urgent. Weekends are for rest, or better yet, for getting caught up or even ahead of next week. Wrong. Rest, recover, enjoy the reward you deserve for working the other five days. Shoot, you can even slow down and get to know others along the way. I wish I had put myself out there and met another rider, to learn about their experience. Sometimes though, someone else won’t be responsible for providing you with the rest stop, so you’ll have to listen to your body and mind. When you need to stop and refill your water bottle or grab a soda and some quick calories, before you bonk. The same is true at work. Take a break, go outside if its been hours, or days since you last saw the sun and stretched your legs. No-one else is going to force you to take a break, but sometimes our bodies and minds will. So, why not take one before its too late and you are faced with a serious case of exhaustion?

Break the journey into manageable chunks

This mainly applies to longer rides, unless of course you’re a newer rider and 20 miles is longer than you’ve ever ridden before. In that case, stop halfway in and get off your bike, drink some water and eat some calories. By breaking your journey up into smaller chunks you reduce the intimidation factor by thinking “I could never ride that whole way”. You don’t have to ride 100 miles in one stretch. I learned that early on, and it helped to think either about 10 mile (or 25 miles) intervals as my focus. Same goes for your career. Why try to picture yourself when you retire and what you’ll have accomplished? That’s super intimidating, especially when most people I talk with question their purpose or what’s next. That’s like riding with no destination. Like the smaller chunk, think about just the next segment in your journey. What do you want to learn or gain experience in during your current leg of your journey? Don’t worry about how long it will take, or what comes next. Like the longer rides, I found it much easier to deal with going 10 more miles and rewarding myself and taking time once I hit that achievement to look at the next leg. It seems like a lot of people place unnecessary pressure on themselves to have everything figured out before they start the ride (or their career) and to not waiver along the way. Your career certainly isn’t a race, so take care of yourself along the way.

Go at your own pace…or ride with others to get faster

These two concepts seem to be at odds. I’m not suggesting you do both simultaneously. The majority of rides I do, I ride at my own pace, even when riding with others. Sometimes if I’m feeling strong, I’ll try to hold onto a faster group. What does riding at your own pace mean in terms of career? You know yourself better than you know other people. Pay attention to what you need, not to what it looks like others are doing and therefore what you think you should be doing to keep pace with your peers. Sometimes your peers have entirely different backgrounds that you know very little about, but make assumptions about because you’re in the same department or have the same title. The danger in sizing up another rider just by looking at their build is that you don’t know if they ride 200 miles a week or 200 miles a year, and you won’t get to know the difference until you’re moving. Pay attention to whether you think you’re trying to keep pace with others, especially when circumstances are different. A very common example of this could be when you’re trying to keep up with colleagues who don’t have families and you think you should be doing everything they can do. Sorry, you’re at a different place in your career, and you shouldn’t apologize or feel like you have to keep up. Now, you’re wondering about the ride with others to get faster. This is essentially mentoring in the workplace. Learn from the seasoned professional, just like you can learn from the 70 year old cyclist who just ripped your legs off on that last ride. Experience and wisdom can make you a more efficient rider and professional no matter what your career, but sometimes you have to draft off the faster rider to push your fitness level. You’ll also be well served to remember to be patient with the gains, growth doesn’t happen overnight.

Different bikes for different rides

This is different from fit. Its about knowing what bike you need, or the skills and experience you need for the current part of your journey. Sure, you can ride a mountain bike on the road, but taking your road bike down a rocky single track could lead to serious injury. So, choose wisely, and know when its time to swap bikes. There was a time in my career when I got used to being employed full time with the security of a regular salary and benefits. When the company I worked for decided to let go of 10% of its workforce, I was effected. I thought I would bounce right back in no time - to another full time role and pick up where I left off. Months later I had passed up opportunities for contract roles and was becoming desperate, and started to question if I should just take a contract role even though it wasn’t something I was familiar with. I’m glad I did. That contract turned into a full time offer within weeks. Perhaps I had grown too comfortable with the one bike I had settled into and could pedal confidently on the path I was on. Thank goodness I found a new reason to take a new path on a new ride. It turns out I also loved riding other bikes after that experience - and by bikes, I mean new roles. I also have a stable of bikes to take on road and off whenever I feel like it. Having the options and choice gives me greater confidence in my abilities.

I hope at least one of these got you thinking - either about your career or about your next bike ride.