Keeping fear in the game with mountain biking

If you’ve learned how to ski or snowboard, you may remember the experience of dealing with the fear of falling and getting injured. As I have entered the world of mountain biking, I have to say that the fear of falling has returned.

Today I went out on a 2.5-mile loop described by the local mountain biking group as “beginner/intermediate.” At several points I thought, “Who are you kidding?” I don’t recall sweating while engaging in so little effort in quite a while.

I dismounted four different times to walk down fairly steep and long descents, three of which had a fair amount of loose sand or gravel. Two had sizable ruts down the middle. Crash there? No way. I’m riding conservatively. No road rash for me.

Yes indeed, I got bit by the fear of falling. On the one hand, I feared letting my bike run. On the other, I feared braking too hard and thus doing an “endo,” which means flying over the handlebars.

In sports, a certain amount of fear is good. Too much fear can be debilitating, and turn you into a couch potato. Too little fear can cause you to take risks that are so far beyond your ability that injury is all but inevitable. A “just right” amount of fear heightens your concentration and makes progress in the sport that much sweeter.

Trail markers in the winter provide clues as to the amount of risk you’re taking. I still remember my first time skiing down a black diamond in Colorado. Going from green to blue to black all marked my development as a skier. I repeated the process when I took up snowboarding.  One reason I took up snowboarding is that I wanted to experience that progression again.

The slopes won’t open here for another 3 months, at least, which means that I’ll have some more time to work on a new set of skills-and-confidence progression.