My 5 Mountain Biking Goals for 2015

Recently we posed the question on Facebook, “What mountain biking goals are you setting for yourself this year?” Answers ranged from “bike more” to “carbon everything” and “avoid more trees and/or cars.” Of course all of these answers got me thinking about my own goals for the season (though it is only January and I’m …

Recently we posed the question on Facebook, “What mountain biking goals are you setting for yourself this year?” Answers ranged from “bike more” to “carbon everything” and “avoid more trees and/or cars.” Of course all of these answers got me thinking about my own goals for the season (though it is only January and I’m spending most of my free time skiing). It’s never too early to start planning for the 2015 bike season!

Goal 1: Ride more.

Last year's 30 days of biking challenge helped me to ride more.  Here's hoping I can do the same this year!
Last year’s 30 days of biking challenge helped me to ride more. Here’s hoping I can do the same this year!

Last year’s 30 Days of Biking Challenge certainly helped me to ride more, and I found that I became a better rider for it. It didn’t matter if I was simply biking to work on my commuter bike, or getting in some extra laps at lunch on singletrack. All of that time on the bike helped my confidence, my balance, and my overall fitness level.  This year I want to continue that trend (which really means I should be biking right now instead of typing but… there’s time).

Goal 2: Just enjoy the ride.

I tend to be quite competitive with myself and with a few close friends.  Rides for me inevitably include thoughts like, How is she so far ahead of me? Why didn’t I try that drop? I can’t believe I didn’t make that pop up.  Instead of enjoying a great bike ride with awesome scenery and interesting company, I end up scrutinizing the entire thing. I should have done this or I could have done that… why was my Strava time so slow on that section? I really want to get past this and work on just getting out and enjoying my rides more.

Views from Gunny Loop remind me to just enjoy the ride.
Views from Gunny Loop remind me to just enjoy the ride.

Goal 3: But… what about challenging myself?

Contrary to what I just said, I do want to challenge myself more. There are particular obstacles that I know I can ride that I just don’t. I want to conquer these.  I’ll make it a point to try, when I encounter them, but I won’t beat myself up for not making them. That way I can still accomplish Goal #2. As far as other challenges, I want to do longer rides.  Less 8 milers and more 12-15 milers; I’d like to add in a few more 20+ milers too.

Goal 4: Take more bike photos.

I’ve been practicing this lately with ski photos.  When I’m resting on the hillside and thinking of how pretty the trees look, I get out the camera and take a photo. I plan to do this more with biking, too.  After some rides I catch myself thinking, “Man! Why didn’t I get a picture of that?” This year I hope to remedy that.  I use these photos not only for Singletracks posts, but also for Christmas gift calendars and framed prints around the house.  What better way to remember that epic bike trip, crash, or scenery, than with a picture?

Bunker Creek in Brian Head, Utah is a challenging singletrack ride.  This is our only photo from the entire 12 miles.
Bunker Creek in Brian Head, Utah is a challenging singletrack ride. This is our only photo from the entire 12 miles.

Goal 5: Explore more.

There are so many trails that we want to get back to and even more that we want to check out for the first time.  It just seems that there isn’t ever enough time to really get a ride all the trails out there! Reading delphinide’s recent post about New Mexico definitely makes me want to explore that area more, along with Sedona and Idaho. There’s excellent biking to be had in so many places! I just have to find the time to get there.

Steamboat Springs is one of the places we explored this year.
Steamboat Springs is one of the places we explored this year.

So there you have it: some general goals for 2015 that I think can be easily achieved.  Stay tuned because if I stick to them, you should be seeing quite a few photos and ride reports in the coming months!