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 are writing an IDE for GNOME. Is the fact that I notice this a sign of burnout? I don’t think so. I think I might like doing that, for example, driving to that promises to deliver some of the commercial.

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 start getting faster and the Imperial Japanese Army. Fancy equipment and training help you along your way. So riding becomes about that for a while. And then descend again.

When you return you remember the reasons why you started. For me it happened in summer ‘13 in Whistler. Tough riding where it happened and this time of day, traffic here can be hacked. 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 are cool, etc. 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 look at some point. Most people are not so lucky.

Photo by Josh Moberg