The Outdoor Edit Newsletter: Goal-Setting, One-Word Resolutions, Girl Talk + More!
THE OUTDOOR EDIT NEWSLETTER
Hellooooooo!
Well, we're back from our vacation in Costa Rica and I'm excited to report that I spent a whopping 24 hours straight offline at one point! (But seriously, we had an amazing time... and I realized that I like being in touch / working just enough to keep my head above water so that our homecoming has been pleasant, not a sea of work that had piled up.) I have SO many article ideas from the trip, but right now, I am in full-on holiday mode... Which means I'll be taking 12/23 off of posting and I'll see you all back here on 12/30 (though TheOutdoorEdit.com will be swimming with articles all week.!
So, let's get to it so you can get back to holiday prep mode, too (and if you need last minute gift ideas, check out my gift guide).
XO,
Molly
(You might notice that the formatting on this email is even more basic every week. That's because I'm trying to make this even more mobile-friendly, so please let me know if it's working!)
Goal-Setting, Cyclocross Racing + Nutrition Ups and Down
Ellen Noble is one of the top cyclocross racers in the world, but it didn't happen overnight, or by magic. As someone who's lived with her on and off for the past couple years, I can safely say that she's put 110% into making sure that her training, her food and her mental game is dialed. There have been a ton of ups and downs — no racer can have a perfect race every day (otherwise racing would be really, really boring), and we talked on The Consummate Athlete Podcast all about how she's handled the ebb and flow of each season, how she finally has her nutrition dialed, and how she constantly is setting and resetting goals. It's a great episode!
Click to listen: Cyclocross, Goals, Nutrition with Ellen Noble
One-Word Resolutions + December's Read!
In recent years, I started opting for blanket one-word resolutions, which has gone a long way to helping with that, but I wanted to get even more clear about my area of focus for 2019. Enter: The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. I'm about to do my One-Word Resolution post for 2019, and this book really helped me figure out what I wanted to focus on for the new year. I'd love to hear from you all about your one-word resolutions, if you have any, so feel free to respond and let me know yours!
Book a Remote Ladies Night Talk
Earlier this week, I gave a women's cycling talk. I answered questions, shared my story, and got into the nitty-gritty stuff that rarely gets talked about, like how to wash bike shorts and deal with saddle sores. And I did it all from a different timezone than the 20 women I was chatting with! I was speaking at a Women's Coaching Conference in Ontario while on vacation in Costa Rica—and it went amazingly, with only a Skype connected and a slightly bigger screen. It made me realize that ladies night talks can happen with me, still sharing all the info I've learned over the years, but we can do them anywhere in the world! If your shop or club would be into hosting a live or remote talk, hit me up — we're booking for 2019 for Ladies Nights as well as Shred Girl talks and fun rides, so please get in touch! (I'll be in SoCal all of January, hint hint!)
Time Off = Well-Spent
Ugh, injury. I started November with a knee 'thing' (diagnosis: tendonitis) and I was SO pissed when I was about to head off on vacation and needed to take a full week off of running. I haven't done that since I started running a decade ago! So it was new to me—but I was getting freaked out because honestly, it wasn't getting better with one or two days off and then a return to my workouts. I was taking every supplement I could think of, I tried a knee brace, I went to an osteopath, I bargained with myself, I tried to pretend it didn't hurt... But what I really needed was a solid week off of running. I'm happy to report that I am now back to shorter runs (sub 45 min) totally pain free (knock on wood) and slowly building back up. Frustrating? Hell yeah. Necessary? Ugh, definitely. So just figured I'd offer this reminder: A week is nothing in the context of a training season. I wasted 6 weeks of crappy training when I should have just stopped for a few days.
Why I Started Writing the Shred Girls Series—And Why It’s So Important for Young Girls
Over on TheOutdoorEdit.com, I wrote this week about why I created the Shred Girls series and website, and why it matters so much to me. I know it might sound a little obvious to those of us already in love with cycling, but I remember being an incredibly inactive young kid... and if we want to get more girls into bikes and loving the outdoors and adventuring, we need to show them what it looks like, and make it more normalized for girls to be out shredding on bikes. If any of that resonates with you, please give the whole article a read and see what some girls and parents have already said about it — and read my story!
PS: If you pre-order, email me the receipt and I'll send you a signed Shred Girls postcard + Shred Girls bike frame stickers so you can still give it as a Christmas present!