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notes for beginners

Mar 5, 2014 at 12:34
by Becky Tesch  
A letter to women who think maybe they want to try mountain biking.

"if you mountain bike, you will fall, you will bleed, you will bruise. You might break things."

This is totally true. You will fall. Period. That said, I don't really fall much these days, I'm not a big risk taker, and I don't feel the need to go fast unless I'm in the mood for it. It is fun to go fast, but slow and meditative can be great too. (That’s right, I said meditative. More on that later.)

Mountain biking lands squarely in the extreme sports category for good reason. Its difficult and dangerous. It's also really a great challenge, and so, a willingness to try and fail and try again and again is necessary. Eventually, you will try and succeed and it will be the best feeling in the world! You will never feel that sense of elation with something that is easy. But you will have to earn it. I cry inside to say it, as I am a feminist at heart, but I find few women are truly up for the challenge and who are willing to look their fears in the face and stare them down, and who, on to p of that who are also willing and able to give it the time it needs. (to be fair, I’m in my mid 30’s, and a lot of women my age are giving their time to their kids, which is totally valid. If this is you, I encourage you to get your kids into it and then you can do it together!) Parenting commitments aside, adult women don't like to fail. They want to be great at everything right away, and if they can't be, they either don't want to try it, or they are embarrassed at their early efforts, and give up right away.

Asa coach, I will be there with you, helping you out, giving you tips, making sure you stop before any really scarey stuff, etc. but Mountain biking is a very difficult sport, so I hope you're up for a challenge! If you're truly looking for a real challenge, you've found it. WELCOME!!! If you're looking for simple fun and a relaxing little ride your first time out, then you're in the wrong place. I hope this doesn't scare you away, but I want to be practical, and realistic, and be sure that you know what you're in for.

The small crew I ride with are all hopelessly in love with the thrill of riding crazy trails! We love to share it with everyone we can get our hands on! It is highly exhilarating, challenging and rewarding. And then, sometimes, you get your ass kicked too.

It's an amazing sport, amongst a million other reasons, It's great because you're exercising, but it's so fun, and your brain is so busy, you hardly notice that you're working so hard! You get exercise, and you get all your aggression out, and it's great! For me, the stress reduction is comparable only to my yoga practice. It's amazing!

A lot of women I meet say "Oh, I tried that once and I was terrible at it!"

My answer to this is, "Yes, of course you were, so was I. It's not an easy sport. If it were easy for you on your first ever ride, then the people who've been doing it for a few years or more would be totally bored. You have to try it again and again and again. You can't get good at it in one try, you have to spend lots of hours on a mountain bike for your body and brain to start learning how to handle things and when to shift and when to brake. You can't learn it from a book, or from other people's advice, you have to do it yourself. You have to get the feel for it. your body has to learn it. You have to get out of your head and into your body and it's instincts and intelligence. (this part is just like Yoga, cool right?) It's spontaneous, and based on intuition, raw and learned. I spent my first few years (that's right, YEARS!) riding terribly! I walked all the time and carried my bike over tons of things, and often I got frustrated and sometimes cried and screamed. I also had great victories! My heart would pound, I'd be out of breath, but I’d ride over something tough and be uplifted and exhilarated!! Eventually, I figured more and more stuff out (mostly on my own, a great series of personal victories that no one will ever be able to take from me) and now I am grinning ear to ear on every ride and love every minute of it. Even things I can't ride are positives to me because it gives me something to practice, a new problem to solve, a challenge to work on, a goal, a new victory to look forward to. It takes time to get there. It is worth every single minute.

What I've learned on bikes has also taught me a lot about life, and I am a stronger person for it.

It took me years, but I have friends who've picked it up much faster than I did. Some people just get it faster. I was a gymnast from age 7-18, but it took a long time to really "get" mountain biking, because it was spontaneous, whereas, gymnastics was always planned out. Despite the muscles, flexibility, grace, body knowledge and coordination that gymnastics gave me, I still had a lot of challenges with mountain biking.

It's a great start if you are already an athlete. The solid mental game is what you need most to start mountain biking.

We'd love to share my joy with you. Hire me as a coach for yourself or for a group, or join me for all women's Thursday night group rides in Milwaukee.

Helmets: I don't want to hear complaining about helmets. I know, they look super goofy. but mountain biking is your chance to completely forget about how you look for a few hours and just not worry about that crap. I'm into fashion too, just not so much when I'm in the woods, and not so much that I'll risk brain damage for it. Other sweaty helmet wearing people don't care, becuase they're having THAT much fun, so you should focus on the fun and let the image part go for a few hours here and there. Think of it as in "image vacation" Additionally, you'll look a lot worse if you crash and crack your head open. How un-cool is it for your brains to be outside your skull huh? [PI= size=l0 align=c][/PI]Or a big old scabby scalp? Brain damage? think about that! Not cool looking.

Smile

Becky Tesch
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www.becktesch.etsy.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/becktesch/sets/

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