What is Mountain Biking Like?

My wife and I have been avoiding mountain biking for years. The main reason (aside from the expense of a bike) was my adventure partner and wife is a massage therapist. If she breaks her arm, that's 50% of our income that stops instantly. We didn't want to risk it, until now. 

We've been labeled mostly as being "rock climbers" which irks me. I don't want to be defined by one sport, I greatly love and respect all outdoor activity. We have however previously spent most of our time rock climbing from 2011 until now 2017. I sense a shift in our priorities and our labels.

Mountain biking is a blast and we only did it for a day. The uphill peddling can feel brutal but if you're used to long uphill hikes (or better yet off-width climbing) and taking it slow and focusing on your breathing - you'll absolutely love the challenge. That's not even mentioning the flowy downhill roller coaster fun!

Figuring out how to flow over obstacles, take a turn wide so your rear tire doesn't hit the inside of the hairpin turn, timing your pedal strokes so you don't hit the ground on the turns...all this is mentally taxing and such a fun technical series of decisions to figure out. Keeping you present and in the moment. 

I yearn to feel tired without my joints hurting. I stopped running years ago because my knee's were getting the best of me. Mountain biking really is an all body low impact workout which is exactly what I'm looking for.

And there's this odd desire to do something that is a bit more main stream and not so fringe. When you tell someone you're going rock climbing that doesn't rock climb it's like this inaccessible activity that seems impossible (even though it's very much not). I also love the idea of going on an adventure trip where I'm not in the back of my mind considering what route is less likely to cause serious injury to me or my belayer (often my wife).

It's a bit of an exaggeration (sorta) but not having to consider death while having an outdoor experience is something I'm really looking forward to. A broken arm is much more likely mountain biking than climbing but a fatal accident is way less likely mountain biking. 

We'll see how this all goes but for now I'm feeling a change in the air of where my focus and priorities are. And, I'm really looking forward to all the new people we're going to meet since it's a social sport! 

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