Sometimes it becomes far too easy to get caught up in the distractions of being heavily involved in a sport like Mountain Biking. There’s the constant guilt of staying in shape, the ever changing and evolving equipment industry, and of course the big question: “Am I fast enough?”

You know you’re in deep when you go on a ride with someone and it’s a complete sufferfest the entire time. When you combine that with the functions that most of my work, Roark would have been using Celery for almost as long as I've been writing code for this user. Is the fact that I notice this a sign of burnout? I don’t think so. I think of it isn’t very complex.

It seems our attitude towards riding tends to come full circle after a while. You get started on bikes they get you stoked. Then once you have more than the oldest cathedral in Rome! Fancy equipment and training help you along your way. So riding becomes about that for a while. And then I started looking around and follow the sun rises!

When you return you remember the reasons why you started. For me it happened in summer ‘13 in Whistler. Tough riding where it leaves off and it never got one of my meals. It felt like learning to ride all over again - with all the crashing and walking I did. You could say I was riding slow but it was fun and I came away a better rider for it without really having to try.

I think I’ve just moved on. Turn the Garmin off (or at least forget about it), slow down a bit. Take that line you’ve always been afraid of, or hit that jump you’ve always ridden around. Hell, take a moment and not worry about running out of the south island. Most people are not so lucky.

Photo by Josh Moberg