I woke up this morning, and went mountain biking with my 13-year-old son Traycen. In that sentence alone, you may be thinking that I do this frequently and that I’m an avid outdoors woman, but don’t be fooled. I can count on one hand how many times I have been on a mountain biking trail, but since our two oldest kids took an interest in mountain biking a year ago, Janson and I have decided to invest ourselves in this incredible culture and fun outdoor adventure.

As my boy and I loaded up our bikes and began to head to a nearby mountain biking trail, I couldn’t help but smile and think about my first mountain biking experience I had when I was about his age. 

I have always been scared and intimidated by mountain biking… Yes, Olympic skeleton athletes still have many fears. 

This sport is filled with sharp, pointy rocks that are directly in front of you on a very narrow path that heads straight down a tree-lined mountain side. The trail is always changing and the endurance, agility, anticipation, awareness, grit, focus, and fearlessness that is required in the sport of mountain biking is heart-stopping. 

My fear of mountain biking began when I was 14.

 Growing up, I had a sparkly pink bike that had three gears: slow, slower, and mystery. The mystery gear always skipped from one gear to the next without ever touching a button. 

In 9th grade, my best friend Olivia invited me to go on a mountain biking ride with her family. As we drove up American Fork Canyon in Utah and unloaded our bikes, my heart felt as though it would leap out of my chest. Those that I was riding with that day were very experienced. They all had fitted helmets. (I didn’t even own a helmet! I borrowed one of theirs!) They had fitted gloves. What were the gloves for!? They had a carrier on each of their bikes that could hold water! My mouth began to be dry and my throat was now parched. They even had gear buttons… on both handlebars! They were professionals for sure! What in the world was I doing here? 

As they started down the trail, they told me not to worry and to follow their lead. It was simple, right? Just do what they were doing. However, the gap between me and them grew wider and wider. As I veered around each bend and cycled up every steep hill, I would try to keep up with them with every ounce of energy I had, but it was useless. Gear one, gear two and mystery gear made it impossible, not to mention very dangerous, to attempt to catch up to them. I was unable to shift gears. I was trying so hard to keep up with their pace, ability, and skill set, and in trying to do so on sub-par equipment, it discouraged me from trying to mountain bike ever again.

Fast-forward 27 years.

Traycen and I arrived at the mountain biking trail and unloaded our bikes. I clipped a fitted helmet on my head, put on my gloves, and slid my water bottle into my carrier. I smiled a noticeable smile. I recently bought a mountain bike…and it has buttons …on both handlebars. I’m still figuring out what the buttons all do, but it HAS buttons and I’m pretty excited about it. I may not be able to play the part of a mountain biker (yet), but at least I look it, right!?

“Are you ready, mom?” Traycen has been looking forward to taking me on a trail that he’s been practicing for quite some time. When I would express my concerns, he would reply with a smile and sarcasm in his voice, “you’ll be fine.” 

We approached the trailhead where it branched into three trails. The signs for the two pleasant looking trails to the left read, “Nirvana” and “Brass Monkey”. The steep, uphill, pointy rock trail to the right read “Creed”. 

“We’re doing this one.” He said with another smile as he pointed to the right.

 He saw my wide eyes and repeated the same phrase with the same smile and sarcasm, “you’ll be fine.” As he put his right foot on his pedal to begin moving forward, he stopped immediately, turned around and said in a much more serious tone, “Just be sure to use your gears, or you’ll never make it.” With that, I heard the clicking of his shifting gears and he began the steep climb ahead.

I took a deep breath, exhaled and looked at my gears. I clicked them down as low as my bike would allow, and almost effortlessly, the tires began to spin. 

This was far from my sparkly pink, three gear bike!

I leaned forward closer to my handlebars to keep my bike from flipping backwards and just kept peddling. I noticed how Traycen dodged between the sharp rocks and avoided the boulders that would cause him to stop moving forward. I tried to follow his lead as he maneuvered his way up the hill. My heart rate increased, and my legs began to burn. I couldn’t keep up with his fast pace and had to slow down. Then, as if he read my thoughts, he shouted, “Just don’t stop! It’s really hard to get going up this hill again if you stop!” With that motivation, I continued to focus on pushing each pedal down one step at a time. 

We finally made it to the top of the steep entry slope. Traycen shifted his gears as the hill leveled out and then he paused to take a break. He reached to the side of his bike and grabbed his water bottle. 

“I love this view.” He said as he gazed out over the beautiful valley below us and breathed heavily. 

“Most days we’re going so fast on the trails that we don’t get to stop and see the scenery around us. It’s nice to stop once in a while and see where we’re going.” He took a big gulp of water and returned it to its place on his bike.

My 13 year old boy was throwing out words of wisdom like a preacher from a conference center seminar. 

How often am I going too fast in my life and I don’t get to stop and see the beauty around me or take a moment to see where I’m going?

I took a deep breath in, closed my eyes and slowly exhaled. I wanted to capture this moment in my memory. I wanted to freeze time for just a minute longer. The solitude of this mountain peak, the crisp fresh morning air, and this quality time with my teenage boy was priceless. 

This moment was a complete shift in gears from the fast paced life I’ve been living… and I knew right then that I needed to shift gears more frequently.

In this busy world of checklists, deadlines, and distractions it’s easy to get stuck, moving uphill in your highest gear. We often feel that we have to keep up with those around us and rarely take time to slow down and enjoy what we already have. 

At times we might even be paralyzed by fear and stuck at the bottom of our hill, looking up, but not knowing how to begin. 

Other times, when our lives hit overload, we might even shift into mystery gear, where we’re busy running around hour after hour, but going nowhere and getting nothing done.

When this happens, it’s time to shift gears.

Traycen and I took in one more magical moment of the beautiful view below us, got back on our bikes, shifted them into high gear, and headed down the mountain side. 

I faced a major fear today. 37 years ago, I was determined to never try mountain biking again, but with the support of my 13 year old son and the ability to shift gears through the difficult ups and downs of the steep, mountain terrain, I’m now really looking forward to the adventures ahead…and the breathtaking vistas along the way. I’ll forever remember my boy’s wise words, “Just be sure to use your gears, or you’ll never make it.”

Quote:

“ The sweet spot is about shifting the small gears, the ones that rotate relatively easily. And because all the gears are interlocking, when we tweak a small gear, large gears start to move -effortlessly- as well.” -Christine Carter

Question:

Whether you are moving too slow or too fast in life, what is one small thing you can do to shift gears today and move closer to where you want to be tomorrow?