Comfort Zone: Part 2

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about getting out of your Comfort Zone.  The gist of that one was that if you want to be a better athlete, you’ve got to get outside of your Comfort Zone, to do things that you don’t routinely do.  To push your personal limits. 

I think I also admitted that I pretty much live in my own personal Comfort Zone.  Home.  Job.  Bicycling.  I must tell you that I rarely get out of that Comfort Zone despite recommending it as necessary to avoid thinking the world revolves around you.

Well, I’m here to tell you that I’ve been outside of my Comfort Zone the past two weeks.  First, I was at a meeting in San Diego but then when the meeting was over, I was stuck in San Diego for 24 hours by myself.  My friends had all left.  Folks, I don’t do “alone” well at all. 

I’m not whining but it was way outside my Comfort Zone.   Being in a strange city without anyone that I knew and nothing to do—well that was definitely uncomfortable for me. 

The next day, I left to meet some buddies in Colorado to mountain bike for a week.   You probably know that I spend a lot of time on a road bike and am no stranger to mountain biking but I was with a group where everyone was a much better mountain biker than I am. 

I’m a nervous mountain biker.  I don’t want to wreck but inevitably do.  The first day I did a face plant and sported a spectacular shiner the rest of the week.  I was regularly pushing my physical limits, riding on hills that exceeded my abilities. 

But there is something rewarding about doing something that you don’t think you can do.  Flying down a hill on the back of a bicycle, barely under control, expands my capabilities.  By doing so, I find that I can exceed what I thought were my limits.  I can do more than I thought I could.

We went down a trail that was way beyond my biking abilities on the first day out.  We had ridden along the crest of a ridge at about 11,000 feet above sea level, pushing our physical abilities because folks, there isn’t much oxygen up there.  But it was gorgeous with views that seemed to extend to the end of the world.

But then we turned downhill on a trail called Green Creek and for the next 5 miles rode down a trail that mountain bikers call a rock garden.  Think cobblestones, irregular placed, lots bigger, with no real trail in sight.  I didn’t so much ride it as survive it.  But I did get better along the way. 

I also discovered that I could do this thing called a “Bike Park” where you ride a ski lift up to the top of a really big hill and then ride down that same hill.  Most folks wear body armor which I also found a bit daunting.  I mean, why do you need all those pads and a full-face helmet and all?  I didn’t really plan on wrecking so what was all that for? 

I was terrified.  Riding up the ski life I remember thinking “have you lost your mind?”  Then I discovered how much fun it was.  And I couldn’t get enough of it.  With each trip down, I got better.  I overcame that fear and turned it into a thrill.

That, in a nutshell, is why we have to get outside our Comfort Zone.  To do things that we didn’t think we could do and, in the process, learning more about ourselves.