New article on mental skills for cyclists

Folks,

This one's on Recovering from Crashes, here:

http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fu...02&status=True

Best,
Marvin

Hi Marvin

Interesting read (some stuff on Pez I take with a large grain of salt). Having gone through a fairly traumatic injury last year (leg amputation following a cycle training accident) and working my way back to competitive cycling now, it was interesting to compare my own experience with the processes discussed.

I got through the early stages pretty fast I think. The worst part was how long it took before I could pedal again. As Cozza mentions, the desire to pursue a passion (in this case racing a bike) is a powerful motivator and the thought it might be taken away from you can be tough to reconcile. There was no way I was going to give it away easily.

Some wise words I picked up on another forum on same topic was about simply focussing on what you can do now in order to move to the next step/stage. For me that was things like being able to sit up, being able to stand up, being able to walk with crutches, learning to walk with a prosthetic and so on. The other was a recognition that the more serious/traumatic the injury, the longer the recovery will take.

I have absolutely no problems (mentally I mean) being on the bike though. I have no conscious or sub-conscious associations/hang overs from my crash. Motivation does vary but no more or less than normal. The main bug that sometimes eats away is wondering how much form I can reclaim. But for that I simply need patience and the right doses of hard work.

One of the fun aspects is that much of the journey is rediscovering some of the original joys. Riding outside. Riding the track. Racing. Riding with a group. We so take these for granted, I appreciate them even more now.

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Alex,

Thanks so much for sharing this. So glad to hear that you are living so fully -- it's very inspiring. All the best to you!

Happy Thanksgiving,
Marvin