Only three more days of cycling to go! I spent some time completing the journal prompts for my day's intentions. 

I. What fire will I carry into this day? Trust

II. What truth will kindle within me, no matter the wind or weather? Consider the lilies - and the sparrows - God sees ME.

III. What shadows may rise to test me? Something unexpected, but totally okay.

IV. What vow do I make to this road? I bring “nothing”

V. What sign shall remind me of what I've been learning? Headwinds

Someone snapped a pic of me looking old and cranky while I was writing haha. 🤦‍♀️

Day 6 - Sandsletta Cabins to Kleppstad

Day 6 Recap:

I woke up with “empty and meaningless” still on my mind and and mused... “on the other side of all the tools, is trust.”

Realizing this ⬆️ helped me believe that if I let go of my strategies and plans and just move forward, I can trust that God will provide, teach, support, heal, and restore all things at the right time. I will just climb each hill one at a time, and eventually get where I need to go.

With no plan of attack, would today just be another day of riding? As I considered, "What shadows may rise to test me?" and knowing that a test would come, I figured it would probably be something different than what I had faced before, something unexpected, since the worries I had brought from home were no longer troubling me, and the hills I had previously battled like an enemy no longer threatened me.

We had a good pow wow with Layne at our cabin with everyone before heading out.

Today, he invited us all to ride with someone new. I panicked a little, because I was sure nobody would want to go as slow as me (besides Monica), and I didn’t want the pressure of having someone near me feeling impatient.

I was prepared to set Monica free to ride with someone more her speed, and figured I would just ride alone. She approached me with a look of hesitancy on her face, not knowing how to say what was on her mind. I was ready to assure her it was okay.

But what she said next surprised me:

She said, “I’ve been so worried that you’d want to ride alone today, but I don’t want to ride without you…” She had remembered me saying early on that I might have to do hard stretches alone, and wondered if this might be the day I'd push for that. But Day 2 with her had changed me, and we both breathed a sigh of relief. We really did have a good rhythm together and decided to stick to it.

Riding with no judgment between us had been allowing us to focus on what we were experiencing and learning. Besides, I thought, riding with anyone else would probably mean I'd either 1) have to go faster than I have strength, or 2) be embarrassed about my speed. I'm a firm believer (as a recovering perfectionist) that overdoing anything just isn't necessary.

"And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run [or cycle] faster than he has strength." (Mosiah 4:27)

So we gathered our gear and headed out together.

The unexpected challenge

I figured the shadow that might challenge me today would be some kind of a surprise, because I felt like any worries I had about my children (or frustration about the hills) were largely behind me. So, today's shadow would probably be something I did not prepare for, like the wind on my face had been on Day 1, or like freezing fingers had been on Day 2.

As we headed out, the unexpected challenge showed up almost immediately: Another rider decided I would be his new cycling companion.

Maybe he thought I could use the encouragement, or maybe he wanted a reason to practice 'enjoying the journey' more, instead of pushing for speed. For a short time, yet another rider joined us, too, but that that didn’t last long. I don’t think either of them had a real concept of how slow I actually go, especially on hills.

I found myself in a tangle from the voices in my head saying I wasn’t impressive enough to be seen by faster cyclists—or worse, that I might not even appear to be trying. But I let all that go and just did my thing. I knew that IF the other riders got frustrated enough, they could always ride ahead.

At one point the one who remained with us the whole day said, "I hope I'm not throwing you off by being here..." But by that time, I was genuinely at peace with it, and we enjoyed his company. I just felt bad for him whenever he and Monica had to stop at the top of a hill to wait for me.

When hills don't hurt

We enjoyed some conversations along the way, and I realized that I had been measuring my success on the bunny hills by how little pain I felt. Sometimes I’d even reach the top of a long one and realize that it had felt almost as easy as if it had been level!

But on the extra steep hills (not pictured, because I was too focused on getting UP them to pull out my camera), it was impossible to avoid some pain. Sometimes if the pain was too great or if I was too slow to keep the bike upright, I walked.

By contrast, the other cyclist seemed to measure his success by how much burn he'd feel, and how well he pushed through it. His sense of accomplishment appeared to come from how much pain he endured. I was feeling pretty sure that that's how everyone else was doing the ride, too.

So I started to compare myself and feel "less than", as it reminded me of not being awesome at sports in school. Academic and musical, yes... athletic, no. Cycling now in Norway?? What was I even doing here?? Am I doing it wrong? Do I need to change how I ride, so I can do it better?

I planned to unpack all that later when I got to the AirBNB.

Every time we started up a hill, Monica and the other rider powered past me at a steady speed while I kept a steady cadence, regardless of speed. Thankfully, the cadence songs had started working for me again. I feel like I reverted to that approach because my own mind chatter had set me back, to where I had lost the power of "empty and meaningless".

Safety in the mayhem

Much of the day was spent navigating heavier than usual countryside traffic, so I actively encouraged Monica and the other rider to keep passing me on each hill—even when they didn’t seem eager to. I didn’t want them stuck behind me, getting impatient and feeling tempted to make a risky move in the congestion.

A chance encounter with our sag van and its beloved driver, Papa Smurf.

It was always fun to cross paths with other riders, sometimes catching up to them because they had stopped to do touristy things along the way.

Time to rest

We had an opportunity to add 10+ miles for a scenic offshoot, but opted for the shorter 31 mile ride. Unfortunately, we overshot our AirBNB by 1/4 mile, but were grateful we didn't have to go back up a hill to get to it. Trevan took the longer route, so he showed up to the AirBnb a while later, where Jorl and his daughter were our hosts.

Comparison is the thief of joy

At one point, one cyclist (also having noticed how slow I was on the hills), said, "You remind me of my wife. She really holds herself back when she rides, which is frustrating, because I know she is capable of more!"

My face:

Haha. Though it stung a little, I wasn't mad. He was in his own train of thought and not conscious to how the comparison might land with me. It really only hit a nerve because I had already been questioning whether I looked to everyone else like I wasn't hardly trying. But maybe he had a point—maybe I wasn’t pushing myself as hard as I should. 🤷

I do believe he meant well, hoping perhaps that his observation might help me discover something about myself that I had not yet seen. Layne teaches us that triggers are gifts, because they show us what’s inside, what’s yet unhealed, and what’s there for us to get curious about. Only after we become conscious to it can we can make healthy decisions about what to do with it.

So, I chose to be grateful for the comment and allowed it to give me something to consider, process, and grow from.

The question was now, "What will I do with it?"

I decided to see what I could learn by facing the question head on, after a good sleep.

Stay tuned for my Day 7 post coming soon!

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Did you know?

After I came home from my trek, Layne continued on to Nordkapp (top of the world) with 7 more cyclists, who are now coming together on a Zoom meeting to share their experiences!

Everyone gets something different out of Layne's treks, so if you want to hear what it was like for them, join us all for a FREE Weekly Forum Special Event (OPEN to the Public!) Thursday, August 14 at 7pm MT. Click here to get the Zoom link.

Learn more about Layne's cycling treks and discover what the experience might hold for you. Click here and tell Layne I sent you!

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