Perspective

Perspective is key. Perspective is truly what creates the good, the bad, and the ordinary in our lives. To understand it is to live, but to master it is to live happily. I'm finding there to be no better place to find a new perspective than sitting thousands of feet in the air starring out at the clouds. I've never seen clouds like this; at least never outside of an airplane. These clouds are tall,it's like a city of white fluff up here, and while I was staring down on this sight, this new perspective of the sky, I began to imagine the perspective I want to adopt to my racing.   Taking off out of the Helena Regional Airport this morning is the perfect time to review my perspective as I'll be needing some pretty soon here. In a little more than twenty four hours I'll have landed in Brussels, Belgium for the US Cycling Mountain Bike Race Camp. This is undoubtedly a flight I've dreamt about making my whole career, but now that it comes around I find myself feeling a bit differently inside than I imagined.  I'll be the first to admit that this season, while being more fun than I could have hoped for, has left a bit to be desired. I feel I'm in a prime position to do something big. Soon. But I just haven't been able to put the pieces together yet. Whether I'm struggling with fatigue, or bad luck it's those adversities that have driven me down.  So where does that leave me in Europe? Well, it's a matter of perspective. I could let those problems drag me down and leave me truly as a loser, or I could control my own destiny. I could turn that devastation into my motivation. Mountain biking is what I want to do, for now and forever. I've said it many times aloud and written it many more times in this blog, but that feeling I get when the dirt's just perfect, the air is clear and crisp,and my blood runs fast through my veins; it's enough for me to forget the pain that comes along with that feeling. It's what I want to do, and I've got a long time to see it though, so that's what makes the right perspective so important. In Europe I'll be racing for the little victories. To ride a lap clean, get a good start, heck, to not get lapped. Those are things I can think about through the race and things that in the end of the day I can feel good about achieving, whether I finished first of fiftieth.  So as I watch these clouds from a new view, and as I go some place that will be very foreign I can always rely on these simple constants. A screaming in my legs, a click of a shift, the grip of my tires (hopefully), and the beating- almost combusting of my heart. These are the things I can always count on, but it seems for them to stay constant my perspective must change. It's going to be a long ride to my dreams and I believe that it begins with a Belgian waffle...