We are one week out from the big race. It was signed up for months ago, committed to even earlier than that because the next year seems to be calling earlier each year. The hours spent preparing, physically, are now at an end. You learned how to manage the pain and the discomfort and the rest of the hard parts of being on a bicycle for far too many hours. At some point you got over the hump of difficult and turned it into rhythm and flow. Now you know exactly how hard you can pedal up a hill without going too deep and failing — you qualitatively know how fast you can zoom before that transitions into danger.

So, what do you do with this last week?

That’s where The Rules come into play.

Thank gods (all of them) that these guys wrote this book, there should be a version of this for aspects of life, but make no mistake that the rules in this book about cycling can be applied to all events of your existence, you might just need to alter the vocab slightly to get a perfect fit.

The truth is you don’t need to follow all the rules, all the time. But you must know the rules to effectively contemplate whether you should be following them or not.

So, read through them all at your leisure and commit as many as are necessary to your memory so you can recite them to those unfamiliar, like bible verses to correct a sinner’s behavior. It is for those that are unaware that we must teach- Rule #3, Guide the Uninitiated. My personal favorite is Rule #43.

The Rule before us today has to do with the final preparations before the moment arrives. You can’t do it in the moment, it must be done before. Without Rule #6, the moment may never arrive. To be left wanting after all the prep work would be heart breaking so make sure that you know right this moment what you are contemplating.

The week before is the perfect time to begin. Not too early, not too late, don’t wait until Tuesday, start exactly 168 hours before go time, even though we are already past that.

Rule #6- Free your mind and your legs will follow.

It is not easy to live this life, in these days, in this time. One must have great amounts of skill to be who you are, more than I have, more than most others have, not as much as those above you, but that’s how it is has always been.

You are exactly who you are right now.

You are exactly who you are meant to be right now.

You can do anything you put your mind to.

So, for the next week, imagine yourself succeeding at this one singular goal of racing your bicycle Sunday.

Each time someone asks more of you that might possibly take away from you going faster, say, “no thank you.”

When work asks you to add one more task to your already overwhelmed capabilities, politely defer to the following week.

When your significant other brings up the subject of remodeling the kitchen, tell them that is a conversation you would love to have next Monday.

Ahead of time is the only time to prepare the mind for the moment to come. Give it the time and space and priority to find the calm and settled state that will allow you to ask far too much of it during the time of the race, when every fiber of your being will be called upon to give its utmost for the most important reason of all.

You.

Cheers