Ask Syd: Does Taking Time Off Make You Faster?

Posted on January 4, 2017 by Syd Schulz

“A day off can work wonders” is a phenomenon I have experienced time and time again when learning new skills (on and off the bike). I had a coach in highschool who encouraged us to take a whole month off. “You’ll freeze out bad habits”, was his reasoning.

If I take a week or two off the bike the first ride back is usually amazing. I feel more coordinated and confident, and as long as my fitness is still there, I feel much faster. Have you experienced this? I wonder if there is a pre-race strategy there… Or maybe it’s just an illusion?

-Nico

My friend Nico left this comment on my most recent post about learning to wheelie and I thought it was a really interesting idea and possibly something others would benefit from thinking about as well.

When I first started riding bikes seriously (about three years ago), I found that if I took any more than two days off, my first ride back would be an all-caps DISASTER. I would be slow and sloppy and frustrated. Now, it’s kind of the opposite. I find that when I give myself the rest I need — especially after a few weeks of working on skills — that’s when the breakthroughs happen.

I think the key here is balance. You have to balance putting in the work with recovering both mentally and physically. If you aren’t putting in the work — whatever that may be — taking a few weeks off is not going to be a boon. In fact, it will probably hurt you overall. I’m not sure I buy the idea of “freezing out bad habits.” It might work — but you may also freeze out good habits. Habits take time to be ingrained. If your bad habits are deeply ingrained, the only way to get rid of them is by learning a different habit or behavior. They won’t just go away if you take time off. You will ALWAYS fall back on the bad habit if you haven’t learned something different to replace it.

That said, while we give a lot of credence to recovery from a physical training standpoint, we often overlook mental recovery when it comes to skills work. And that’s a mistake! Your brain takes time to process new information — at least mine does. That’s why I find in-person clinics to be challenging — I prefer working on skills in short (15-30min) bursts and a 2-4 hour clinic overloads me. That doesn’t mean I’m not getting anything out of it — I usually see a big improvement a few days AFTER a clinic, which is why I love Lee McCormack’s online training because I can continue to share that improvement. Even so, I find that if I’m trying to learn a new skill, or dial in a new habit (i.e. changing the way I hit corners), I don’t want to take more than a day off from practicing. The good news is once that new habit or skills becomes ingrained, it should stay with you even after a few weeks (or months) away from the bike.

But everybody’s different — I think the most important point here is to learn how you learn and figure out what works for you. If a two week break gives you a massive boost, make sure you’re scheduling in breaks throughout your year, so you’re staying mentally fresh and having fun. If you find yourself feeling sloppy after a few days off, make sure you’re riding consistently, especially if you’re gearing up for a race or a big ride.

Frustrating Mountain Biking Scenarios and How to Deal With Them

Posted on July 15, 2016 by Syd Schulz

Mountain biking can be frustrating AF. It’s also fun AF too, of course, but I think when we’re trying to sell our non-bike friends on the sport we often oversell the fun factor and forget to mention that, oh by the way, this sport is kinda HARD. Sometimes you will crash and bleed. Sometimes you will crash on the same root six times in a row. Sometimes you will cry or yell or throw your bike into the bushes. Of course, I personally think it’s worth all of the frustration — but I also think it’s better to be realistic and that more people will stick with the sport if we all take a little time out to recognize that it’s freaking hard for ALL OF US.

Ass over tea kettle in Chile earlier this year.

One of my missions with this blog is to be as real as possible about the fact that even though I’m all pro and shit (lol), I still totally lose my cool, get frustrated and think I can’t ride worth a damn. There is no magic day where suddenly mountain biking is easy (or if there is, I sure as hell have not arrived there yet, and I’m not sure I want to). That said, I get frustrated way less now than I did three or four years ago. Part of this is that I’m in way better shape, and it’s always easier to deal with frustration when your heart rate is not 200bpm and your brain isn’t leaking out your ears. But a bigger part of it is that I have recognized scenarios that frustrate me, and developed strategies for dealing with them. So here are some common scenarios that push all my buttons and the coping mechanisms that work for me.

1. Being the slowest on a ride. I’ve been in this position a lot, and it used to bother me, even if I was riding with a bunch of fast, professional athletes and there was no expectation for me to be faster than I was. As I wrote, in this post, a really important step for dealing with this scenario is not apologizing and calling yourself slow at every intersection, as this just reinforces the frustration. I also find it helpful to try to focus on what I can learn, instead of how far behind I am. If it’s an XC ride and I’m being annihilated on the climbs, I just try to look at it as an opportunity to gain some fitness and push myself. If I’m being dropped on the descents, I try to stick on someone’s wheel for as long as I can and try to see their lines. If I’m totally by myself, I take the opportunity to practice my cornering, or just enjoy the trail, or whatever. If you’re learning something, or having fun, who cares? Most likely not the people you’re riding with.

2. People are watching you struggle. This used to be a MASSIVE problem for me. I could not handle riding anything technical if there were a bunch of people standing around gawking. There is no easy fix for this, but I’ve slowly become desensitized to crowds after doing a few EWS races. Pre-riding for an EWS used to really stress me out because there were always people standing around watching at the nastiest bits. Not to mention I would be constantly getting caught by guys going about mach 10 speed. Earlier this year while pre-riding in Corral, I had a stunning realization — I no longer gave a shit, and I no longer dove out of the way the moment I heard someone behind me. Sure I was happy to let someone by when it was convenient, but I had finally realized my own right to exist in that space and pre-ride for the race. It made everything so much easier. If this is a problem for you, here are a few things to remember — first of all, the people standing around don’t really care about you. They are thinking about their own race, what line they’re going to hit, etc. If they’re spectators, they’re just there for a good time and to cheer you on. They aren’t judging. They don’t care. Honestly, the worse you look, the more impressed they will be that you’re out there doing it. Secondly, and I’ve written this before — even if you ride/walk/run down something HORRIBLY, people will be impressed if you smile or crack a joke (or if you’re racing, just keep going without losing your temper). So if you care what people think (and don’t we all?), try to impress them by having a good attitude, as that is something that’s under your control.

3. Crashing in a race. Crashing at any point can be frustrating, but during a race is when I tend to totally panic and lose it. You’re losing time! Must get up and go faster to make up for it! As you can well imagine that often backfires with another crash and then another and before you know it, full on shitstorm and your race run is ruined. I cannot tell you how many times in my first year of racing I had relatively minor crashes but then proceeded to flush the rest of the run down the drain by going into panic mode and crashing again and again and again. This year, I’ve made a conscious effort to deal with race crashes in a very specific way. I get up, check my handlebars, check my brakes, check that my chain is still on, take a few deep breaths and tell myself (sometimes out loud) “freak out later.” This works for me because telling myself to “not freak out” would be unrealistic, but somehow I’m able to accept “freak out later,” I think because it’s a subconscious acknowledgement of the part of me that wants to freak out, so that part doesn’t feel ignored. At the end of the stage I can cry, panic, worry about the lost time, whatever. Just not now. It works. Often by the time I get to the finish, I don’t even feel like freaking out any more because it wasn’t a huge deal. [Editor’s note: This strategy might work a little bit too well, because after concussing myself in Sun Valley, I got up, checked my bike and finished the stage going pretty fast, which was fairly silly/dangerous under the circumstances. So, adding a “check for serious bodily injury” to your personal post crash list is probably not a bad idea.]

4. Trying the same obstacle over and over again without success. We’ve all been there. By the third or fourth time you try something, you are getting pissed, losing all finesse and just making the same mistake over and over again. But you don’t want to give up because that feels like quitting, so you just keep pushing until you get hurt or throw an epic trailside tantrum. Here’s the thing — as much as it feels like persistence and determination to keep smashing away at something, it’s not smart practice. Take a step back after you start getting that panicky-angry feeling, and say “not today.” Then go home, seek out similar obstacles or trail situations (where you don’t have this previous mental block), and practice. Strategize, visualize and then return to the obstacle when you’re fresh, both mentally and physically. Easier said than done, of course, but better than letting frustration ruin your ride.

Your frustrating scenarios might not be the same as mine, but hopefully these coping mechanisms help. Whatever it is that gets you riled up, the important part is to tackle it head on. Identify the scenarios that lead to frustration for you before you get into them — when you’re already pissed about something is not the time to figure out how to deal. But if you have a plan going in, you may be able to conquer your frustration when it comes up and keep having fun and enjoying the ride. And that’s the important part.

This is Why Having a Growth Mindset Matters

Posted on March 22, 2016 by Syd Schulz

There’s a lot of talk about growth mindsets these days, mostly spurred by Carol Dweck’s amazing (and amazingly popular) TED Talk on grit and growth mindset in the classroom. But what I’ve realized is that nearly everyone prefers to talk about how to inspire other people to have a growth mindset, specifically small, impressionable children who have not yet been ruined by years of misguided school systems telling them they suck at math. Naturally, this is easier, and far less messy, than trying to dismantle a fixed mindset in an adult. Because not only do fixed mindsets cause your world outlook to be fixed, they also adhere themselves to your brain, your identity, your very being, in a way that is decidedly, well, fixed.

I know because I’ve been trying not to have one, and it’s hard. It’s specifically hard because there’s not much info out there on how to do this. Sure, you can google “tips for developing a growth mindset” and uncover lots of flowery (albeit probably true) garbage about opening yourself up to challenge and re-framing failure and whatnot, but this isn’t very helpful if you don’t know what a growth mindset is, or you can’t recognize the problems in your life that stem from having a fixed mindset.

I had my first revelation on the topic a year and a half ago when I wrote a post called “Why You Should Do the Things You’re Bad At” although I didn’t realize at the time that I was talking about growth mindset. Mainly I was talking about how I had just then (at the age of 23, sigh) realized that a person will be good at whatever they invest their time in (and if you’re bad at something, it’s probably because you haven’t invested the time in it). A few weeks ago, I wrote a follow up to that piece about getting better at being bad at things, and as I was writing it, I came to the conclusion that over the course of the intervening 18 months, my world view had evolved dramatically, largely thanks to that idea of “being good at what you spend your time on.” While having a growth mindset is still a work in progress for me (and probably always will be because, ya know, growth), in less than two years I have changed my outlook, my perception of my capabilities, and the way I deal with setbacks and failure. Some major progress happened in that time, and I now realize that it can largely be attributed to working on a growth mindset.

I plan on writing a post with some real world tips on developing a growth mindset, specifically in a mountain biking context, but first I think we need to clear up what a growth mindset is and why exactly working on one is worth it.

Here’s the difference between growth and fixed mindsets, according to Carol Dweck:

“In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits… They believe that talent alone creates success–without effort. In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work.”

And here’s what having a growth mindset looks like, in real life (according to me) —

Having a growth mindset is not just “believing you can succeed,” it’s “believing you can change.” This is a crucial distinction for me. I’ve always been capable of believing I could succeed (at least when I was having a good day), so I always thought I had this growth mindset thing under wraps. But dozing off in math class visualizing winning a state championship track meet is not the same as, honest to god, believing you are capable of the mental, emotional and physical changes necessary to meet your goals. Visualization is great, but it does not a growth mindset make. Having a growth mindset is finishing a shitty race and thinking “okay, that was shitty, but what did I learn?” And then once you think through what you can learn from the experience, you forgive yourself for having a shitty race and you move the f*ck on. And if you do have a meltdown anyway, with a growth mindset, you can think, okay, next time I’m going to react differently, and then you forgive yourself for having a meltdown and you move the f*ck on. (Seeing a pattern here?) I’m not saying that I’m good at this, but I’ve had plenty of practice over the past few years, and it’s empowering to think of all those shitty races as being building blocks to something, as opposed to just a collection of examples of times when I’ve dramatically underperformed. At the very least, I’ve learned that being happy and fulfilled after a race is a completely separate skill from actually doing well in the race — and it’s a skill that I can work on, and perfect, no matter whether I’m on the podium or DFL. With a growth mindset, failure doesn’t define you and therefore neither does success. While it’s good to believe you can succeed and all, recently I’ve realized that that pales in comparison to the importance of simply believing that you can do better, and knowing that you are willing to work to make it happen.

Having a growth mindset is understanding that it’s okay (good, even!) when something is hard, even if everyone else is making it look easy. Because there are always people who make the hardest things look easy — and 90% of the time, these people were in the same position as you 2,3,5 (or more) years ago — and they’re where they are now because they put in the effort, kept going and progressed. And chances are they occasionally sat down on the side of the trail and wept, or flung their bike into a bushes with a few choice words, because nobody’s perfect. With a fixed mindset, struggle is a sign of failure, or an indicator of a lack of talent. With a growth mindset, struggle is a sign that you’re doing something that’s hard or new to you and that there’s room for improvement. Yes, I admit it sounds semi-ridiculous to get up after face-planting into a pile of rocks and say “well, at least there’s room for improvement,” but you know what, it’s infinitely better than thinking that that face plant means you suck at riding a bike.

Having a growth mindset is understanding and dismantling the limits you place on yourself. If you’re like me, you have a list of things in your head that you’re bad at — for me, it’s math, chess, sports involving projectiles, waiting long enough before flipping pancakes, torrents, organizing my email inbox and touching my toes. Mind you, I’ve been working on my flexibility for a few years now and I can touch my toes just fine, but it remains on the list because that’s just how insidious fixed mindsets are. I was a disgustingly inflexible teenager, therefore, I continue to think of myself as inflexible. Fixed mindsets aren’t based in reality — they’re based in the dark recesses of your psyche and they prey on your insecurities. While realizing this doesn’t entirely fix the problem, it certainly helps. With a growth mindset you can take that list of things you’re bad at, and rename it “things I don’t do.” Frankly, I give zero shits about being good at chess, so it’s likely to remain on the list for awhile, but I’m okay with that. You can get rid of the idea of certain skills being “impossible” for you, and instead think of them as “things I can’t do yet.”

Stay tuned for a guide to developing a mountain biking growth mindset, sometime in the next few weeks!

Why You Should Go To Queenstown (And Ignore All the Haters)

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Syd Schulz

Queenstown, New Zealand, adrenaline capital of the world, has a bit of bad rap in the travel blog community. The cool thing to say seems to be “Queenstown is worth a day or two, just to see what it’s all about, but then you should go to Wanaka, because it’s so much less touristy and way more chilled out.” Continue reading →