Yesterday, I participated in the Dairyland Dare, billed as the "Midwest's Most Challenging One-Day Bike Ride" or some such. It lives up to its reputation.
Some "How to Save Your Life While Riding a Bike" Tips that arose for me as I was slogging up those hills---either on the bike or on foot:
1. It is better to DNF than to DNS
2. It's a good idea to view every ride as a training ride for something else
3. Figure out what works for you and then do it---no matter that what works for you isn't what works for the 1,215 other cyclists at your event
4. "I'm not gonna drink water before the ride so I don't have to pee in the corn" is a very bad idea
5. It is possible for a half bagel, strategically stored in a jersey pocket, to save one from a hip fracture when one falls off the bike. Not that I have any personal experience, of course.
6. You could be on a hill that is so hard for you that you have to walk up instead of ride up. You could get all revved up about how bad it is too be in such shape that you have to walk a bike up a hill. Or, instead, you could be grateful you can still walk, and grateful that you are smart enough to be walking, instead of having a 2,000 calorie brunch somewhere.
7. Having friends to bike with makes the experience better, even if they are faster than you.
8. Instead of being threatened by the faster, stronger, and leaner, choose to be inspired by them. Same thing goes for the person who is heavier, slower, and older.
9. Almost everything on a bike can be improved to make riding it up hills easier. Some of those people dropping you on those hills are able to do it because they simply have bikes built or upgraded to do just that.
10. Hills are hard. The things that make them easier, besides good gearing, are: practice, losing weight, practice, experience, practice, attitude, and practice. Accepting that they are hard and giving yourself credit for trying something hard makes going back for more easier.
