Mountain biking for fun and relief? Or not?

Mountain biking for fun and relief? Or not?

Like other hobby’s and sports mountain biking is a good way to relive the stress of your work and life issues…

The more mountain biking in your life the greater the relief… to a certain point… because when you get more involved and serious about mountain biking you become more likely to have your emotions involved…Getting worried about races…being angry if races don’t turn out well… feeling the needing to have the newest and best technology all the time… needing to ride a least x amount of miles a week to stay fast… ect ect ect

So instead of being a way to relive stress and the burdens of life, cycling can cause stress if ambitions to achieve mountain biking goals go beyond a certain point...Its hard to point out exactly where that point is...Its probably different for different people... but a possible indicator is if when trying to achieve mountain biking goals it feels stressful like a job… when you feel your worth is directly linked to how well you perform on a bike… when in the pursuit of accomplishing your goals leads to neglecting other aspects of your life…when worrying and nit picking details about riding takes up an obsessively large portion of your days…

Its just like the guys who get too serious about world of war craft...

The reasons why you are doing the activity in the first place can become lost… clouded by the blind motivation to accomplish goals (or in the case of world for war craft… the need to complete quests).

My conclusion… I believe less emphasis should be on accomplishing specific goals and more should be put on fulfilling the reasons you started started riding in the first place... for me that's fun and relief (sometimes transportation and/or socializing) could be different for others.

weekend group ride

Gambrill/Watershed
9:45, Sunday

Another group ride… there was a group of 15 of us…we split in to two groups; A and B… I was designated to lead the A group… im ok with getting my self lost but i was a bit worried that I might get my whole group lost… i took them on trails that Anna Kelso had shown e on another group ride the week before… there were a lot of turns involved to retrace the same loop we did… I remembered some portions but about half of the time I just guessed… so I was amazed that we were able to retrace the same route with out taking a wrong turn…i was also amazed that none of us had a flat tire... with so many sharp racks and so many riders i would have put money down that at least one person would have a flat...

the route is a particularly technical … I was planning ion bringing my camera with to capture just how technical they are… but I forgot… I will try to remember for next time.



We all ate at place to the left of “If The Show Fits “ shoe store (I don’t remember and I cant read the sign) after the ride.

ride and trail maintenance

On Saturday some riding @ my new local trail network Gambrill park and the watershed… starting to find my way around a bit better… I rode with Jeff Dicky (also a UNH alumni) and some of his riding buddies… I think there was 7 of us and between all of us there was 5 flats and two torn off derailleurs. there is a lot of sharp rocky sections that cause flats. I think every other ride I have been on up there so far I have got a flat tire... so the day before are ride I went to the local bike shop here in town Wheel Base to pick up some extra tubes and a mini-pump. I bought this topeak pump…

It was a petty reasonably priced pump and it was put through the test last weekend… It seems to work really well… I am happy with the investment

Then on Sunday I did some trial maintenance in Gambrill park. It was nice to meet some people. Their seems to be a pretty passionate group of mountain bikers in the area.

Move

Moved to Frederick MD… some good riding here... Gambrill State Park is about 7 miles from where I am living.

winter should be a bit less brutal here than Maine so hopefully i will be able to ride more...

The Trail of Two Lakes, SERIES FINAL, Mount Snow, W.Dover, VT

The Trail of Two Lakes, SERIES FINAL, Mount Snow, West Dover, VT

Sept 20, 2009


I thought I saw about 15 names on the registration but I must horrible at counting because I think only 7(?) of us were at the start line… officially the smallest turn out of the year (in the root 66 series pro /cat1)…

there were some huge turn outs in the beginning of the season...30+ feilds… some big names… regional fast guys…cycling dirt was doing interviews and race coverage…I was styked about the progress…and I thought the root 66 series was becoming a big deal and mountain biking was making a comeback… but progress really slowed down for these last few races…attendance got pretty low…but still progress I suppose because it was on average still better than previous years (@ least in the pro/cat1 category)…

anyways…. back to the race…

I liked the course…it was three, 6 mile laps... each lap was about twice as long as the east cup race I had raced earlier in the year...there were several new sections that I had never raced before at mount snow…the fact that the conditions were like perfect was probably a large factor in why I i enjoyed racing this course so much …it was just how I like it… dry and cool (65 degrees)… Most of the races this year have been supper muddy…I believe this is only the second race of the 13 races I did in the series that I didn’t get covered in mud …the other being fat tire classic…and that one was wicked hot.

I had an ok race...I was very close to getting a 3rd place and getting my first podium of the year… i had a 40 second gap on 4th place … but just before the last lap decent I got a flat and was passed by 3 or 4 guys…putting me in last or second to last….i was a bit of a bummed but I suppose not a big deal in the larger scheme of things.

Seamus Powell won the race

This was the last race of the root 66 series so the overall results and winners were determined…in my category(pro/cat1) here’s how it looked…

1 Seamus Powell
2 John Foley
3 Mike Mooradian
4 Mike Joos
5 Kevin Hines
6 Joshua Wilcox
7 Mike Rowell
8 Nathan Ringquist
9 Thom Parsons
10 Greg Carpenter

congratulations Seamus!!! he got really fast this year.

It’s the end of the racing season for me…but I still hope to do a lot more riding with friends and bike trips…next week I am going to WA DC to a wedding and bringing my bike along… hopefully their are some nice trails down there to rip.

Landmine Classic/GT Golden Bike , Hingham, MA

It was about 75 degrees and sunny….Trails were muddy and had some big puddles from the rain the previous day…

It was a GT golden bike race…there was the gold bike, a GT booth and a whole crew of cheer leaders who did a dance and cheer before the start of are race…Which felt a little bazaar to me…normally the only females you see at mountain bike races are the occasional girlfriend or wife of a male mountain bikers who might race themselves...but they rarely wear skimpy outfits or dance around.

I think 18 started in my category (pro/cat1…which is a little lower than average for this year)… I was expecting more considering that the race was so close to Boston, a central location for many.

i went from leading the race … then fell to 3rd… then fell to 6th and by about 3 miles in to the 26 mile race I was 7th... I think that is how I finished unless someone dropped out or got lost in front of me… which is a good possibility considering all the rocky fast sections and all the turns and overlapping the course did…more turns arrows and road crossings than any other race ive done.

the 49 year old x national chanp Kevin Hines won… my ex team mate and riding buddy Andrew Freye was in a close battle for 2nd with John Foley which he lost after a slip up on one of the wet bridges…team mate John Burns had a good race finished 5th?

The next race is the series finally and the last race I plan to do this year…it will be at mount snow again…it will be my 3rd time racing there this year… and with out Kabush and the 80% rule I will be able to do the whole race with out getting pulled …. Yay!!!

weekend at kingdonm trails

the parking lots were packed...it was crowded with mtn. bikers

Rode with Brent, John, Andrew on Saturday for 6 hours

Brent...the one in orange... we met up with him after he had just won and set a course record climbing the Burke mountain access road...congratulations!!!
Andrew
Burns

Then on Sunday i rode with Matt, Ryan, Shelia and lee for 6 hours

Matt
Ryan
Sheila
Lee

went in the river after both rides...


it was a fun weekend... hopefully i will be able to get up there once more before things start getting too cold