Bikes, Beers, Battlestar Galactica.

     You know the saying: “Shoot for the stars, and if you miss, you’ll die in the frozen vacuum of space.”

     Edit: I’ve been informed that’s not saying, and now my childhood makes a lot more sense.

     Anyway… Point is, don’t be afraid to fail. Failure is part of the process. The 76ers have been teaching us that for, what, a decade now (AMIRITE). The fear of failure is tough for an athlete to overcome. In sports, where success and failure are a black and white issue, it’s easy to feel handcuffed, always terrified to make a wrong move. But when you acknowledge that failure is inevitable (especially in cycling, where even the best racers lose 85% of the time), it frees you up to try new things. Here are some things you should try!

     Set big goals. Enormous goals if you want. But have manageable benchmarks along the way. So you watched the Tour de France for the first time this summer and think it looked like “fun” and you want to do that some day? YOLO. Set THAT goal. I hate to be the Bad News Bear, but you’re probably not going to win the Tour. Internalize that desire anyway. Make it part of you. Part of your routine. If you have that ambition, and take the steps to follow that path, you’ll be a helluva lot further along than you would be if you stayed timid your whole life. Don’t be afraid to fall on your face. Open Enrollment for Obamacare doesn’t end until December 15th. You’re good.

     Don’t be afraid to ride hard. This whole “little ring all winter” notion is nonsense. Have you noticed how many Aussies and Kiwis have burst onto the road scene lately? Guess what they’re doing right now? Flushing toilets in the wrong direction, and racing their guts out (Shout out to Sundo for your podium in the NRS Down Unda’ Yesty-Arvo or whatever the hell you kangaroos say). The only way to get fast is to train fast. Training zone 2 all-day-every-day gets you really good at riding in zone 2, which is really good for getting you dropped. And aside from not developing your upper limits, it’s just BORING. Suffer a little. Your fans (and your sanity) will thank you. ​Reverse periodization. It’s been a thing for a while now, and it works at the elite level. 

     Don’t be a psycho. Trust me, I know: sport can be all-consuming. It can ruin your day. Your week. Hell, it can ruin a decade. I just read a quote from Eddy Merckx that said (and I’m paraphrasing here), “Nobody cares about me. I’m surrounded by friends and my life is full, but they only care about who I was.” Which is pretty much the saddest thing I’ve ever read, and now I’m going to go cry for four days and reevaluate my life. Anyway, this ties in a little with my first point about failure. When you’re on the bike, give it everything. Full Gas. But when you’re done for the day, let it go. Hang up your shoes, put on some clean clothes, and be a normal human being. You can only stalk Strava for so long, and analyze a particular stretch of road so many times before your soul seeps out through your tear ducts, and you’re left staring blankly at an empty twin bed and cold bowl of flavorless porridge. Don’t forget to have a life. Make friends. Sleep with people. Bikes can be awesome, but beer’s pretty dope, too.

     That’s it for now. Here are your Cliffnotes: Ride your guts out. Fall on your face. Drink beer.