When I look back on that now, I laugh. I can’t believe I used to walk parts of this trail.
What a perfect day coming down.
Story about this hill climb right here—oh, refreshing.
This hill climb…
When I first started mountain biking, which is the trailhead for our whole trail system here.
I could not, could not clear; I just climbed. I used to hike-a-bike.
When I look back on that now, I laugh. I can’t believe I used to walk parts of this trail.
And I was 37 then. I’m 55 now. It’s almost 20 years later, 37 versus 55, and I laugh at the fact that I used to hike about that. When I first started mountain biking, I did something really stupid; I signed up for not a five-day, not a seven-day, but a 13-day trip in the Rockies. I did not know what I didn’t know; I didn’t have the skill set for it, and I certainly did not have the fitness for it. But we did it, and I was at the back of the group of riders like every day, and one of those days was something called Seven Summits. It was an eight-hour day in the Rockies, up and down and up and down. You wouldn’t believe the bruises I had on my leg after that. Anyways, my point is this: how am I 20 years later, way fitter? I came back from that trip a different rider. I was thinner; I was stronger, and then I laughed at myself. I never rode this trail the same after that trip. But you know if you’re just getting into cycling in your 40s or 50s or 60s,
or up. I think one of the best motivators is to sign up for a road trip or a mountain biking trip. We did that last year; we went to Mallorca, and we were so worried that we weren’t going to be able to keep up with the roadies as mountain bikers. So I trained all winter just using the Garmin suggested rides. So I said I want to be ready by May 10th, and I picked their Gran Fondo training, and it starts off super easy, and then it starts to ramp up closer because the things I’m going to do a 100-mile race, and then it gets harder and harder and longer, but like manageable because you’re getting fitter and fitter along the way. And when we went on that trip, I was fitter; I had lost weight, and I just think commit, commit to a trip, make sure it’s at least six months away, or you know, I think ours was probably eight months away, and then just enjoy training for it. I promise you, nothing motivates like that.
