We've all seen it. Extreme athletes who push themselves to be able to go to lengths that nobody else can. Look at the snowboarders who jump out of helicopters, or the motocross dude whose normal race contains heart stopping jumps. It's like being a dare devil has become a competitive sport. Then there is mountain biking. Just you and the single track trail, the challenge: stay on your bike.
All of these sports have a really tough learning curve. If you fall from fifty feet in the air, you could get a learning curve imprint on your forehead. But mountain biking can be different. It's gradual. It's a thrill at every level. You can bomb down a hill at 60MPH or you can have just as much fun on the same hill taking it easy. Then there is the race circuit! The bottom line is… how can you not have fun on a mountain bike?
The pros:
- On a trail or rough road a mountain biker can travel faster, farther, and consequently see more than someone that spends the same amount of time walking/hiking.
- Quite often, I can travel faster than a 4 wheel drive vehicle, I get jarred around less, make less noise, have less impact on the environment and ecosystem.
- It is human powered!!
- I can ride bikes with my family which encourages a healthy lifestyle.
- I can load it up and hit the road for a "destination vacation" (I don't miss any training days).
- There is nothing like mashing on the pedals on some monster uphill climb just so you can turn around and bomb down that same hill lacing the best line and knowing your going to stack it up in a corner the same time you realized you actually gained speed in that corner instead of scrubbing.
- You will learn what the heck I just said.
- You will get a boo-boo.
Like everything in life, I ask myself that question. Most people, when faced with that decision choose to be the same guy they were yesterday, hey they can go big on X-Box anyway right? No reason to actually DO anything. But some people, the ones that everyone else admires, get up and decide that they are going to be mountain bikers.
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Guest blogger Jon Taylor co-authored this with Graham Raymond. Jon is the star of TheDougAndJonShow.com and novice mountain biker training for a triathlon. Graham is a seasoned endurance mountain bike racer, marathon runner, tri-athlete, and professional river guide. Jon is on a quest to race in his first triathlon. The triathlon is the XTERRA, so it is all off road, lake swimming, mountain biking, and trail running. To make it interesting and really force them to be introspective, their team is blogging about it the whole way at www.365DayTriathlon.com.
