How depressing is it when you get overtaken?
I was out early Saturday morning on a training ride for my up coming triathlon in about 4 weeks time, when about a dozen 20ish year olds out on their morning session, went flying past me.
At first I was pretty bummed.
Looking at these skinny little human beings speeding past, leaving me for dust shouting “morning” as almost a distant echo by the time I heard it.
With this mornings ride I was also working towards a personal best over 20km so felt pretty bummed that I was left behind so quickly. My head dropped, as did my speed!
Just a reminder, this wasn’t a race, just a training ride.
Then, I remember the words my coach said a few months ago.
“It’s ok when to get overtaken.”
He continued to say that there will be people faster than you. People than have been training for years longer. People younger. People lighter.
He essentially was saying that it’s ok to get overtaken because you’re all racing your own race. At my level, all 100 (or however many!) people in my next race are going to be completely different in shape, size, fitness, speed and ability.
So back to these 20 year olds. I’ve got 15 years on them and it looked like a “couple” of pounds as well. We weren’t racing the same race.
But… I picked my head up. I picked up my speed and actually realised that whilst they were spinning away like mad, my consistent solid pedalling at a lower cadence, over a good distance, I was catching them up.
I didn’t re overtake them, but I did get pretty fricken close! Stoked.
So, moral of the story?
Yes, I did want to win that little unofficial road battle (in my head anyway), but it prepared me for race day knowing that I’ve got to concentrate on the like for like racing with people in my age group and not expect to beat the little sproglets, fresh out of nappies 😉
I’ve got to race my own race and see how I go.
The first race will give me a good gauge on how I’m doing against people like me and more importantly (because I’m quite competitive 😉 what I need to do to get ahead on my second race!