The response to my post on mountain biking and fear has been awesome. I loved reading your comments which are full of honesty, courage and wisdom. Here are some of the absolute gems – I hope they will inspire you to face your mtb fears.

 

I thought long and hard before I wrote my post about Fear and Mountain Biking   – firstly because mtb is full of posts where people are getting air and having the time of their lives and I didn’t want to put a downer on that, and secondly because I’m wary of admitting stuff like this on SM, where we’re all supposed to be sorted and ‘feeling blessed’.

But I did it – and whatdoyaknow – it’s been one of the most popular posts I’ve ever written. At the end of the post I asked how you deal with fear, and your responses have been so brilliant I thought it might be a good idea to share some of them here. There is so much that is useful – thanks to everyone for taking the time to share your experiences (and sorry I can’t share them all but we’d be here all night!).

But before I begin, this weekend I came across this Instagram post by none other than Rachel Atherton – looks like its okay to admit you get scared sometimes after all 🙂

“First time on the DH bike today in the fresh & cleansing rain after crashing at Fort William World Cup. I know social media is for making life look epic…but I’m not gunna lie, I am nervous as hell on a bike right now!! After so many injuries, surgeries and rehabs over the years to my shoulders the memories of the past are always strong and almost as hard to get over as the injury itself…as I’m sure many of you know! For now I’m taking baby steps and seeing where that takes me…thanks for the support!”

 

And  now over to you guys….

This is from Jennifer @pinkmtbr on Instagram (I ADORE everything about this post btw!)

“As I sat in the van having a fear cry after practice, I started to fret about what people would think when I pulled out of the race. I was worried my friends wouldn’t think I was as badass as I pretend to be. That @kev_purcell would point out I’d missed a day’s training for @bcbikerace. That I’d have wasted the entry fee. Blah. Then @adelemtb‘s recent post on Fear and Mountain Biking conveniently popped up on my timeline talking about the right frame of mind, and a friend reiterated that I had to turn the fear in to excitement. I could give that a go. As I rode up the transition after the final stage I pondered back to practice the day before. Why was I worried about what everybody else would think? If I had pulled out I’d have been so disappointed with myself for me. I race for the fun, for the community, for the challenge for ‘me time’. So actually, it didn’t matter at all that I was ‘least quick female’. What mattered was I was faster than if I’d stayed in the van and that made it flipping awesome.”

While this comment from Jo Simcock made me feel pretty sad:

“Part of the reason I stopped riding was fear and feelings of inadequacy. My last ride was marred with someone tutting so much and then nearly took me off because I was riding so slowly then hit my rear wheel which says more about them than about me. I’ve always been cautious…but the attitude of speed or you’re crap really spoiled it”.

These comments are from Facebook group MTBChix&Trails

Hannah Beeby‪:

“Honestly… the fear of the technical difficulty I probably deal with better than I deal with the fear of letting myself down. If the trail gets difficult I am perfectly happy (most of the time… possibly too much) to get off my bike. Fear of letting myself down though… finding it hard going on something I know I can do or ought to be able to do… that’s the toughie for me. Takes massive strength of mind to stave off the panic and tears. Not sure if others fight this too?‬”

Shazzer Kennedy:

“I think fear for me essentially comes down to getting hurt. I’ve had a couple of nasty injuries and am laid up with a ruptured Achilles right now (not cycling related). I don’t do group rides, especially with the blokes, because I am worried about getting hurt, but I think that is pretty reasonable. I have found I’m much happier biking either solo or I have a couple of good chicks who I ride with regularly. All those head miles aren’t for me in MTB, it’s the thing I do to escape the mental wear and tear of life, not add to it.‬”

Emma Downey:

“Riding with other women helps me to overcome my fears. Being encouraged by others and seeing them do it and following them has helped me to tackle stuff I was scared of. In turn it feels good to also help other women to overcome their fears.‬”

Rachel Jevons:

“Sometimes it depends what zone I’m in that day. But I take myself off to one side and I say to myself this: ‬”Sometimes, you just have to stop being scared. Either it will work out, or it won’t. That’s life” then I just do it. ‬ And then some days I don’t even do that I’ll just say ‘fuck it I’m gonna try that’ and just do it ‬. ‬ ‪I feel like I almost physically push the fear and doubt in a nanosecond out and force myself into something. That moment of release is incredible.”

From the Cotic Bikes Facebook page, who kindly shared the post.

Enok Walden:

“I think fear is important to keep you from doing stupid things beyond your ability but it’s also important to fight back some territory from the fear once in a while. Skill training is a good and save way to do it. As Cy says in his newsletter: it’s one of the great things of biking that you can always improve no matter what age you are or how long you have been into the sport.‬”

 

Sarah Freeman:

” The fear of humiliation is an interesting one. I’ve been learning to wheelie recently and I was told ( quite rightly) that all I needed to do was go out and practice in the street outside my house, or in the nearest empty carpark. For a woman in her 40’s, that’s actually quite daunting! Firstly…people my age…just going ‘out to play’ like kids do. It’s pretty odd behaviour. Secondly, a lot of people who live here know I ride mountainbikes, and have done for years…so I’m going to go out in public and show them I actually can’t do wheelies….yet! What I found though…surprisingly…is that if you just DO IT, nobody actually takes much notice. For the past month or so I’ve been riding regularly, like a 10 year old would, taking my bike out for 30 mins or so and doing wheelies, hopping off kerbs, wheelying off kerbs…and it’s been REALLY REALLY good fun. And I’m better at riding a bike because of it.‬”

 

And from this site…

Emily, a potential World Cup rider says:

“I really welcomed this post, as I think fear is something we don’t talk about much in relation to every day riding, but it’s something I have to work really hard at to control. 

I regularly feel a slight catch of fear of simple trail features, such as a muddy puddle or off camber root, as I don’t like the bike moving unpredicatably.

I’m aiming to race a World Cup next year so I need to push myself on features that quite frankly, I’d rather not do at all! I’ll talk to my man about my worries, such as not having control, or not making the corner. I’ll also critically look at the feature, and if it’s far beyond my skills or limit, I’ll walk away but will write it on my ‘to conquer’ list. It’s a nice reminder to keep pushing the limit and to go back in a few months. I’ll also seek out similar but smaller features to train on first and practise my body movement.

Ultimately I don’t feel any shame at not doing a feature – just motivation to improve until I can.”

Pippa Stroud:

“There’s a technique known as ‘graduated exposure’ which works brilliantly; it’s about gradually acclimatising yourself to a particular situation (slippery descents for example) but the really awesome thing about it is that you also have to reward yourself each time you tackle something that you’re afraid of. I’ve had the excuse to buy myself some great bike kit as a result!

Weirdly, what’s happening in my life can often impact on my MTB bravery level, but there’s no better feeling than facing those fears.”

Exactly.