Support women's sports and SHARE this story with your friends!

People use sayings and catch phrases to motivate themselves. Does this really work for you?

How many times has someone told you, “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger…” Does that quote really mean anything anymore? It, like many other cliches, seem to have lost their touch over constant repetition spanning over many, many years, and many, many sports.

I went to do the Tour of California TT. I knew I could only bring what I could summon to this incredible event, and I could only do the best with what I had. I wanted to have the very best possible, but I have been racing around the world and trying to recover from this block. I have been almost dying (or at least I think I have been), but each day, getting stronger. I wasn’t dead yet at least, so I surely was gaining power.

Or so I thought.

You can have an off day. You can take your disappointment and crawl into a cave, which I may have done briefly. But through losing, and through hardship, you learn. Live and learn. You don’t learn by always winning. You learn through failure, through fatigue, and through fighting.

My motto for the day was, “like a solider, you are already dead…” I wanted to bring out the very last that I had within me. I wanted to dig for any fight I could muster. I wanted to be brave, but I wanted to not save anything. To not think about tomorrow. To be suicidal. Apparently this only works to an extent. Maybe I was already dead. Like a solider, I was dead long before entering the battle.

After a week of refocus, re-energizing, I am finding my health and my feet again. A couple of training races in Northern California, and then it is off to Mt. Hood, then Nature Valley, then Nationals…then….phew. Maybe I will be dead after this block? Or maybe I will be stronger. Only time will tell.

Take each day by the horns, to throw another mix of a cliche in there, and you may not be dead yet. Get stronger. Rise above. Take pride in your effort, no matter how grim the outlook.

Like a solider, you are already dead.

Support women's sports and SHARE this story with your friends!

• Cycling
• Sports
• Road Cycling

View Original Post at alisonstarnes.com

View AStarnes's Full Profile