After struggling through last summer with a hard-tail mountain bike (the rear doesn't have suspension) I finally gave myself the gift of a proper (aka awesome) mountain bike in April. I got a great deal on last year's model of Giant mountain bike with 5" of travel (5" of suspension in both the front AND back... pretty sweet).
It's barely June and I've already mountain biked more this Spring/Summer than I did all last Summer. It's amazing the difference a proper bike can make! It's like a whole new sport! It's more fun, I feel more confident and it's a blast learning the various intricacies of the sport (when to shift, how to preserve your legs on the long uphill rides, picking the best lines through more technical areas, etc.).
Yesterday I biked a pretty typical local trail, Smuggler, and I didn't feel like I wanted to keel over and die! (that's an improvement) The majority of local trails have a heavy dose of uphill and I didn't exactly come into the Spring in shape so I've definitely been struggling through rides just trying to get my fitness going. I felt surprisingly strong yesterday which got me pretty excited because that means I'm actually getting into bike shape. The first time I rode Smuggler (about a month ago) I was stopping very frequently and out of breath the entire way. Yesterday, I only stopped a few times, was never extremely out of breath and my legs actually felt pretty good when I got to the top. Improvement!
It's kind of funny to think about how I've grown to thinking about anything athletic and actually being excited at improvement. The younger, more athletic Me would've been far more wouldn't have cared about improvement unless it meant I had finally reached perfection (which I obviously never did, which meant I was never happy with any performance). Really glad I don't think that way anymore; lesson learned from marathon training injury.
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