Prudent return to mountain-biking

This Saturday was my first day mountain biking of the season.

Now at age 72. I have only been on fat tires once a season since I turned 70. More hesitancy, less brute force would be the key observations on that very first day.

Since we’ve had such a dry spring and summer, erosion has done some significant damage to the trails and rocks are showing larger and more frequently, requiring much more attention than in seasons past.

Much more than skiing or road-bike riding, the first day out on a mountain bike is always marked by lots of tension, from a hesitant mind to a pair of white knuckles that firmly grab the handlebar and stand ready to squeeze the brakes.

When the ride is smooth and the slope isn’t too steep, there is nothing quite like it, though! I would love to ride more often for the rest of the summer if I can muster the right balance between becoming much more relax and remaining extremely attentive.

I’ll let you know how this plan develops...

What makes biking fun…

I love to ski, walk and hike in the mountains, but cycling is even more special.

I’m talking about both mountain and road biking. On a bicycle, one can really cover a lot of ground in very little time, enjoy fantastic scenery and see countless and minute details that are totally missed while driving or being a passenger inside a car.

The thing that I like most though, is that it’s not a linear sport, with the variety of efforts that need to be produced and the variety of sensations afforded by just pedaling on flat areas, working hard on climbs, relaxing while coasting and getting thrilled during fast descents.

Again, this is true with both forms of cycling, but I must admit that mountain biking offers even more options like keeping up at high-speed with a winding single-track and clearing all kinds of unexpected obstacles!

Then, what’s holding me from not biking more? My past falls and injuries of course; these have made a searing impression on me. I’m not a fan of mechanical problems either, like flat tires or broken chains, but I should also remember that all roses have thorns...

The bike quandary

Because I’m advancing in age and perhaps also because I have bit the ground and bitten the dust too many times while riding, I’m not as enthused as I used to straddle my bicycle when winter is over.

Yet, against all odds, that just what I did on Wednesday. I only a rode a short 3 miles, but I was happy to have broken the spell and reconciled myself with my two-wheeler.

Another reason beyond age and painful falls is the fact that bike riding is fraught with technical situations like tire problems, drive train issues and a myriad of pesky little details that contribute to making the experience filled with potentially annoying incidents.

The same doesn’t apply to skiing, as much as that sport is also burdened with equipment and adjustments of all kinds, but once one gets on the slopes, the likelihood of problem is minimal compared to what happens with biking.

This is probably why nothing beats walking or hiking when it comes to recreation and piece of mind. This say, I’ll be good sport and I remain open as well as willing to start this new riding season!

First mountain bike ride!

On Monday, I found the perfect moment to escape on my mountain bike. It was my first ridehttps://go-11.blogspot.com/2018/08/still-mountain-biking-at-70.html of the season.

Sure, I’m not 60 anymore and every vertical foot gained costs much more energy, but the end result is still priceless.

The conditions were bad. I left home at 10:24 and it was already too hot, but I took my time going up (I had no real other option), I saw close to 100 other riders, mostly kids and families, which is a lot, but returned home in one piece and – most importantly – with the keen desire to do it again, very soon!

Unexpected encounter

Yesterday morning, I went hiking from Empire Pass to Jupiter Peak, the summit overlooking Park City.

The last section of the peak ascent is a narrow ridge with loose shale, that requires a bit of scrambling and that's bordered on one side by a nasty cliff.

As I was where the arrow is placed on the picture, I was startled by two mountain-bikers coming out of nowhere and barreling down the ridge.

I instinctively stepped aside but the two dare-devils didn't even slow down as they passed me.

I thought to myself, these two guys are playing with fire and will soon learn how it feels when their tender skins hit the rocks!

Still mountain-biking at 70!

Ever since I crashed on my road bike, I was longing for getting out on fat tires, albeit with some anxiety, and on top of that had always promised myself to still mountain-bike after I turned 70.

So, yesterday afternoon, while the thermometer was inching close to hell and 80 degrees (27 C), I straddled my ancient mountain-bike and got going on my routine trail.

Once I got to the top, I realized that I still had the stamina to get there, and the descent went a bit slower than usual, but without a hitch.

I had just broken the spell, I had found out that age was grossly overrated and I'm now ready for more fat-tire fun as soon as the temperatures cool off a bit.

That sounds about right; I've extended my contract!

To ride or not to ride again?

On Wednesday I muster the willpower to get my road bike out and rode again for the first time since my accident more than 6 weeks ago. I was a bit apprehensive while walking my bicycle out of the garage, but once I hit the street, it was as if I had never stopped using it.

During my short, 5 km ride, I thought about the pluses and minuses of getting back on two wheels. I came up with this:

On the negative side, biking, just like skiing, is equipment intensive and requires a lot of preparation just to get going, like slipping on special clothes, helmet, gloves, eye-wear, getting water ready, checking the bikes for air, etc.

It's also extremely equipment-dependent (maintenance, transmission problems, flat tires, etc.)

Finally it's not a super safe sport, especially as we get older (vicinity of cars, falls, collision with people and animals, etc.)

On the positive side, it's obviously fun and part of our long, beautiful spring, summer and fall seasons, here in Park City, whether it's on a road bike or on fat tires.

In addition, we just can't stop simply doing something because there's some danger associated with it, living alone, is eminently dangerous.

Finally, we own the bikes and they're anxiously waiting for us inside our garage!

To ride or not to ride?

After a bad accident like the one I just suffered over a month ago, I've been asking myself the question, should I ever ride again?

The corollary would be that if I don't, I might as well do nothing, stay in bed and wait to die. Not an acceptable proposition.

Then, I haven't even mentioned the options: Road vs. mountain-bike, easy routes vs. tricky ones, etc.

This, as you can't see is quite complicated and since I'm not yet fully recovered, a final decision will have to wait a little bit longer...

Trails for aging riders

I feel pretty remiss about my mountain-bike riding this year. I tried to find excuses for a spotty participation, but the main reason for my low mileage is simply pure laziness.

Sure, as one gets closer to seven decades, there's always a tinge of apprehension, a drop in VO2Max and an eroding muscle tone, plus also the fear of falling hard and getting hurt plays a huge role in slowing us down.

Even during my rare outings (still in the twenty range), I've discovered two new trails that are perfect for older folks like me. They're just behind my house and their names are “Pork-U-Climb” and “Down Dog”.

They are wide-single tracks, mostly covered with dirt with very few rocks, nice banked turns and their average grade is a sweet seven percent. On top of that, both are one-way, so there's no fear of colliding with another mountain-biker and the views are just spectacular.

Today, I took my wife after a two-year hiatus and she fell back in love with it. If you live in Park City, ride these two trails before the snow makes them impassable with regular tires, and if you like them as much as we did, make sure to mail your donation to the Mountain Trail Foundation!

Mountain-bike and Concentration

I've written this so many times; riding a mountain-bike demands concentration from the time one leaves home to the time the bike is safely hung back inside the garage.

Today, as I was riding and enjoying it thoroughly I came across a group of mountain-bikers that were stopped in some blind corner (where else, I wonder!) One lady, who evidently spilled badly, was all bloodied in her face, her bike front disc bent and she wasn't a happy camper!

I did what I could to help and went on my merry way. As I was riding, I was thinking that there isn't one single moment that's open for lowering one's guard on a mountain-bike.

Danger is lurking every linear foot along the way and if one doesn't concentrate 100%, one is bound to bite the dust.

That's right even a good, almost “safe” 99% won't do. I'll try to remember this...

Age before beauty

This morning as I was laboring on my mountain bike, I had one of these rare chance of passing a group of riders that were slower and – I assumed – having an even harder time than me.

When I began to passed them, I said hello, followed by: “I'm sorry to have to pass you, but it's age over beauty!”

One of the riders responded “You are both!”, meaning old and beautiful. I yelled “Thanks!” and was on my way.

These guys just made my day...

Appreciating mountain-biking

This year, I don't ride my mountain bike as often as I used to.

This is my 12th consecutive season straddling this heavier bike and it's undeniable that I've become lazy, seek to keep my body from hurting and let's be frank, I don't have the stamina that still possessed me a decade ago.

This said, I love as much as ever being on a single track, either struggling uphill or zipping down the mountain, especially now, that the opportunities have become few and far between.

There's just nothing like it and I hope that even if it has to be in small doses, I'll be able to savor that very unique pleasure for many years to come.

I can't wait for my next outing!

Meet Relive...

My son recently introduced to Relive, a Dutch startup that uses data to turn outdoor activities into 3D animated videos. It takes data garnered from Strava, another activity app, and creates 3D animated videos.

The app has already been used by professional cyclists and, as of May, the startup is said to have seen half a million users sign up, that are apparently creating 100,000 videos daily.

What I like about it is that it goes beyond statistics, health and performance-based metrics by focusing on the fun aspect of the outdoor experience.

While it's only available for cycling and running at the moment, I can't wait until I can use it for skiing too!
 

Mountain-biking day #2

Saturday was a perfect day for going out; a good night sleep and cool morning temperatures. I did my routine course behind our home that amounts to about 8.2 miles and tried to do the best I could, but still felt that my time was bad.

Well, when I compared to my first outings of the 2016 season, I was 1 minute faster which was encouraging. What interests me is to see the relationship between aging and athletic performance and the only meaningful graph I was able to find dealt with swimming.

It showed that the angle of the slope is pretty steep after 55, but the loss seems to be around 1 to 2 percent per year after 60 years or so.

So things aren't so bad after all. I realize that swimming has little to do with mountain-biking, but it provides me with smidgen of reference.

I just need to get out more often...

Hard to get back in the saddle!

Like no other year before, I've found it very hard to get back in the saddle and cycling again.

Was it more apprehension, more procrastination or tiredness, I can't say for sure. We blamed the delay on May's atrocious weather, but this sounded like a poor excuse.

We finally got the bikes out around the middle of June, without any great enthusiasm and yes, all went well, except for the usual pain in the buttocks which never fails to accompany the very first days of riding. Will we break records this summer? I don't anticipate it, but let's say that we'll do our best.

By the way, if this were any measure of my commitment, I just bought a brand-new helmet!

When mountain-biking kills...

A few days ago, someone killed himself on a new “designer mountain bike runs” that have begun to sprout around Park City.

While mountain-biking isn't a sport for sissies and sees its share of bloody falls, broken bones and concussions, death has been up to now a rare occurrence.

My sense is that with the introduction to these downhill-only “flow trails”, that are artificially designed and built for spectacular banked turns, jumps and undulations to create a flowing ride experience, riders find themselves in a situation similar to super steep groomed ski runs in which it's super easy to loose track of any sense of relation between speed and control.

These new flow trails and their special features like banked turns, rolling terrain, various types of jumps, and consistent and predictable surfaces promote a high rate of speed and users get so intoxicated by their fast descent that they lose their sense of control and danger relative to speed.

I have experimented a flow trail like the ones described above last year and I got scared to death on it; immediately, I could see the inherent danger of unbridled speed with a hard terrain, rocks and trees all around...

HT or FS?

Hard-tail (HT) or full-suspension (FS)? That's my mountain-bike question of the day. My bike mechanic told me that the current bicycle I use “is shot” and I need something new. Problem is, I'm not getting any younger and my needs come with multifaceted requirements.

I'd like to keep riding till I'm in my early 70s, plus I don't want to spend a fortune on a new bike and yet, I'd love to get a lightweight little machine instead of the slug I push up the hills these days.

I know that older folks like me appreciate the comfort of full-suspension, but could my kind of trails, that are gentler and smoother, absolve any portion of that requirement and let me ride a HT?

Tough to decide, and the more I wait, the older I get and if I don't make a decision, I might miss on this fall's attractive mountain-bike sales...

Women mountain-bikers

I love mountain-biking and the only elements I fear are falling, going over the handlebar and colliding on single track. To alleviate that later risk, I have a bell that I use liberally before any blind corner, yet, that doesn't prevent shock-encounters and I've had my share of those, some more brutal than others.

Of course, there's that key rule for single track riding; The cyclists traveling downhill should yield to the ones headed uphill. With very few exceptions, men generally get that rule, but most women don't. Is it because female are spatially challenged and can't tell uphill from downhill, or is it that they expect men to always yield to them, no matter their right to it? I don't know, but their attitude ticks me off.

Yesterday, as I was riding my mountain bike uphill, I came across two girls yakking as they were barreling down the trail. At first they didn't appear willing to slow down, but they eventually stopped when they saw that I was neither stopping nor yielding to them. I thought to myself, “hey, we're making progress!”

Then two miles down the trail, in a notorious blind area, I met that girl that was going like a bat out of hell; she didn't even try to stop and I'm the one who violently hit the brakes in a last-ditch effort of self-preservation. I came to a full stop while she blasted through, I continued and soon realized that as a result of my pulling on my rear brake lever, the hydraulic disk brake was stuck and was jamming the wheel.

I was forced to walk the bike home and this gave me a perfectly good reason for blaming that particular girl and all the other women mountain-bikers, the world over, for my ordeal!

Getting the adrenaline rush

When I was a young man, the only way I could get a sizeable surge of adrenaline was in driving my small french car very fast. It had no power, so that was always on the downhill side of a mountain road. I took lots of risks, had a few close calls and got unfairly lucky most of the time.

My dream car was a Matra Djet, an under-powered, mid engine sport car, but it was obviously ways beyond my means. So the aspiration went by, I got jobs that came with company cars, had a family, a home mortgage and the fast car fantasy vaporized.

In recent year, I kind of rediscovered that dream under the form of mountain biking with its generous rush of speed, near-misses, spectacular and bloody accidents and a constant overdose of adrenaline.

I guess I don't need to invest in a Porsche.

From Road to Mountain-bike

Yesterday was my first ride on fat tires after familiarizing myself – again – with a road bike, and, as always, I enjoyed thoroughly the outing.

After a few days on my new road bike, I felt strong and ready to climb, yet at the same time, I had not lost any of my special mountain biking skills and savored its fun factor.

Even though the two activities have very little in common, except for the use of bicycle, they seem very compatible and even complementary. I can and plan to live with both!