Do you have a 'Mantra' while on your bike?

Sometimes if it's windy I tell myself "i am a leaf on the wind" (sometimes I'll say it out loud)... though I know that didn't end well in the movie, it mentally calms me down. I have done the same "BRING IT ON" stuff that others have mentioned if the conditions are nasty (I've done that running, too, and mentally it's helped).

I talk to my bike a lot. Sometimes I'm concerned people are listening. Mostly I don't care. ;) It's usually encouraging stuff, like "we're doing great" or "we're almost there" or "let's do this hill." If I say it out loud, it has to be positive. Sometimes if I'm riding with others who are behind me (or I pass) or need to be "pulled" through difficult terrain (hills, wind) I'll talk to them, too, but I don't want someone to feel like I'm talking "down" to them. Sometimes normal conversation, too, but that's usually just a distraction, albeit often a welcome one.

Sometimes I sing "she'll be comin' round the mountain when she comes" when riding hilly terrain. It makes me smile. I always imagine people coming out to meet me and all kinds of silly stuff.

I do make up songs sometimes, or make up songs to the words of other songs. One day when I saw a snake, I was making up a "badger, badger, badger badger, mushroom mushroom! oooh it's a snake!" song (a web video on weebls-stuff.com) except with marmots, snakes, and something other than mushrooms that took me a while to figure out (thus I sang the song for multiple miles of distracting enjoyment, and here I can't even remember what I substituted for mushrooms).

Colby- I love that you are a fan of firefly/serenity too! :D

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Originally Posted by Urlea

Colby- I love that you are a fan of firefly/serenity too! :D

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I have to admit I didn't watch it when it was on TV, and it was the movie that got me into it. I wasn't a huge Buffy/Angel fan (and I also admit that I'm not watching Dollhouse), but after I saw the movie I had to go back and watch the series. Something about the movie was just a good combination of campy, sci-fi, future, past... it was great.

end hijack! ;)

I like "No chain, no gain!" and, on hills, I keep telling myself "The hills can't get bigger, but I can get fitter!"

I just focus on breathing when it comes to hills - I measure each breath and each number of cranks per - and keep it super even. I kick tail on hills - I pass everyone - but then everyone passes me on the downhill so it all evens out. :cool:

I love coasting down a hill with the wind in my face. Up hill - not so much fun, but I remind myself
It's going up the hills that make me stronger!

Hehe...this thread helped me this morning when I fell at my first stoplight (which is like, 2 minutes into my ride). First time that's ever happened...I just had a misfire on the brakes and stopped before I had both feet out of the clips. I wasn't seriously injured, but I did scrape my knee. More than anything I was embarrassed (because I did it in front of a huge line of cars). I wanted to just ride off in the other direction (i.e., back home) and get away. Then I started off and the wind stung my knee. But I just told myself "Suck it up, Princess" and "Harden the F*** Up" which made me laugh, and then I was fine. :)

How about a mantra when you're not riding your bike. When I find myself doing something that is wasting my time, like standing in the check out line or being put on hold when I make a phone call I can't help but think,
I could be riding my bike instead of doing this!

I remembered this morning riding to work that I forgot to mention one of my hill mantras. When snowboarding with my dad (he skis, and teaches skiing, so he's got a lot of ski-endurance) he always says "rest on the lift" or "rest at the bottom" so we keep riding the entire hill from top to bottom instead of resting in the middle. I turn that into "rest at the top" or "rest on the downhill" to keep myself pedaling up AND OVER the hill rather than feeling burnt in the middle of the hill. It also makes me think of snowboarding with my dad, which makes me happy. ;)

When training for the MS150 here in Pennsylvania, my husband would make me keep doing hills over and over again. The one song that kept playing in my head was "Stronger" by Kanye West..."that which does not kill me can only make me stronger."

Although, some of those hills tried...;)

I was on the patrol bike today, in the 102 heat, wearing my kevlar, my dark blue heat encasement suit (aka summer uniform), my gunbelt, and my trusty steed the trek mountain bike we use for patrol (NOT my Colnago road bike) and I sat at the base of one of our steepest, longest, meanest hills (not all officers CAN ride up it...and I am the only woman on the unit!) and decided that I would ride up it, and I would NOT do it in mountain bike granny gear. So I thought *HARDEN THE F*C* UP" and up I went. A crew of workers were standing at the top, looking at me like I had just stepped off a space ship.

Funny thing, though, was that I called out on it, in part to make myself do it, and in part to let the other officers on duty that I was tackling THE HILL ON ROLAND. So it went, "312, Neighborhood check." (312 is me). Dispatch says, "312?"...awaiting my location. I pause for dramatics, "I'M OUT ON ROLAND." All this is at the base of this monster hill. Dispatch, who has no idea that this really means, hey everybody sitting in your nice air conditioned cars, I am getting ready to go up this hill, says, "10-4". So I start up. I get about halfway up this thing, spinning hard, blood pounding in my ears, when I hear dispatch say, "312? What was your location again?" I was like, are you kidding me? I have to take my hand off the handlebar, keep pedaling or tip over (and with it that steep I would never have gotten started again), key up on the mike, and say, "ROLAND!" but as forcefully as I say it, I can't quite get enough air in my lungs (the vest doesn't help this process) so it comes out as a squeek. One of the officers listening got on and said, "Dispatch, she is out on Roland. It's a big hill." So I lost some of my street cred.

But I got up it. Then got to whizz down the other side and pedal on to the QT for a slushie. A lady said, "THey make you ride that bike in the heat? Oh sweetie, you are flushed!" I laughed. I GET to ride the bike in the heat!