Absolutely agree! I was doing the same old trails until recently, when I decided it was time to up my game just a bit by trying some new trails. Haven't made too much progress but have noticed that I'm more energized and seemingly 'on' more of the time. A wonderful feeling at 64! Thanks for this post!
You're welcome, Kristin. And yes, riding new trails and more challenging segments of your usual trail routes is a great way to stimulate cognitive demand.
I'm curious... do you sometimes ride trails or trail segments that feel dangerous?
I feel mountain biking, especially with friends, hits a lot of things they say are modifiable risk factors of declining brain health: learning new skills, aerobic activity and building social connections. A bit of truth to the t-shirt slogan that "you don't stop riding because you get old, you get old because you stop riding!"
FYI, 'Gnar' author Steven Kotler rates mountain biking as a 9 on scale of 1-10 for the level of cognitive demand it provides. Of course, the devil is in the details. If you always leisurely ride the same easy trails by yourself, it would drop to the bottom.
I can't say that I have any knowledge of what keeps the brain healthy but I like what you are saying here. At 67 I'm starting to worry a bit about the phenomenon that occurs between 60 and 70. That being the serious reduction in people out being active at or over the age of 70.
My wife says I have an obsessive personality and for the past 6 or 7 years I have been obsessed with MTB. Not that mountain biking is new to me, just the obsession. It started when our daughter decided to be on the NICA team and I became a coach. I taught skiing for over 40 years so I knew that good coaching could seriously shorten the learning curve for our riders but no one really knew how or what to teach them. That got me going on my MTB obsession. I still coach the NICA team but now I've taken on the job of trail building and maintenance of one of our local trail systems. Now I'm obsessing over how to build trails that are even more fun and interesting to ride.
I am excited to show this post of yours to my wife so I can show her that I'm really just keeping myself young and healthy with all my obsessing. Thanks for the great post.
Ken, I showed your comment to my wife and she loved it. So thank you. I tend to be obsessive about MTB as well, but I've learned to keep it under control (mostly) because I like being happily married!
Props for your NICA coaching and learning to get better at trail building. Both of those are definitely cognitively demanding. I no longer do face-to-face coaching (my hearing keeps degrading), but I'm still in charge of our local MTB skills park and am always tinkering to make it better. My chief collaborator is a 14-year-old boy who races for the local NICA composite team.
Do you spend any time trying to get better at any MTB or skiing skills?
I have a young trail advisor who is now 15. I’ve been asking him for advice for a few years now. He can ride things that I can’t. The young and old working together. Another great way to stay young.
I spent most of my life working on skiing, all kinds of skiing; alpine, alpine racing, Nordic downhill, backcountry, cross country, XC racing, and even snowboarding. I was as good as I will ever be quite a few years ago. So no, I’m not working on improving my skiing.
Even though MTB isn’t new to me I only started trying to be good at it about 7 years ago. Speed and cornering are my main focus points. Jumps are something I have work hard to stay away from, although the small drops and jumps you encounter along more difficult trails are fine. I have two main skills I’m trying to perfect; how do I go fast over difficult terrain? and how do I get around corners without losing speed? I have spend many hours studying and practicing these skills. There is definitely an element of danger in speed. I will give you my theory on skill and danger another time.
We are so lucky here in Heber City, UT, where I live. We have around 175 miles of single track trails in and around our valley (10 minutes for home) and another 550 miles up in Park City (30 minutes from home). I ride a lot.
Do you have fat biking in winter where you are? Do you work on cornering? What are you main points of focus when cornering?
Ken, you are lucky indeed living where you do for MTB and snow sports. I feel the same here in southern MN.
I do own a fat bike as we usually have 4-5 months of winter. I ride it at night quite a bit, often group rides.
I don't work on cornering. I learned some basics a few years ago, enough to make things feel stable while going just fast enough to be a little scary but mostly fun. I don't race or try to beat my Strava times. RLC has a cornering course, but I've not taken it, even though I've been a coach there for 7 years. It seems I'm always working on other courses to up my game!
Parks are a relatively new thing at ski areas. We didn't have them when I was young and throwing myself off anything I could. They have only been common at resorts starting about 20 years ago. In 2001 I crashed my paraglider breaking my back pretty bad. That kind of ended my high flying career. I can do basic, close to the ground things but it's a thing for the young and fearless.
I haven't come across the RLS program before. It looks interesting. I'm curious, how do they get information to give feedback on? I will look into it some more.
Ken, the usual method for getting feedback from coaches at RLC is to capture some video from a practice session and upload it to whatever lesson you're working on for a particular course. A coach will view your video and then make comments.
Capturing a video of your cornering technique is not a simple task if all you have access to is a downhill trail. It's a lot easier if you have access to a pump track.
Ken, as for park skiing, I mentioned in my post that Steven Kotler published a new book, Gnar Country: Growing Old, Staying Rad, earlier this year. It's all about his quest to learn park skiing in his early 50s. So he would disagree with you that it's "it's a thing for the young and fearless" but given your back injury, I'd agree that it's wise to stick to the "basic, close to the ground things."
I know you love speed but I'm wondering if you've considered learning the slow-speed technical (trials-type) skills for MTB?
I have no double that spending more time on slow-speed trials-type riding would improve my balance and control and probably make me a better rider overall but there are problems with getting myself to do it. I grew up skiing at a little ski area in southern Idaho. It had 8 runs and 2 lifts. We spent so much time building jumps, ballet skiing, building obstacle courses, racing and playing other games because what else was there to do? You could ski every inch of terrain in one morning. Then I moved to Park City, Ut and things changed. It took all day just to ski every lift, a couple days to ski every run and several years to find all the secret powder stashes hiding in the trees or under cliffs. And that was just one of the three ski areas in town. Then there is the backcountry skiing. Still after 42 years of trying I still haven't skied it all. I didn't have time to play the games I once did, I was too busy skiing.
Biking is now the same. I don't have enough days left to ride all the trails available right here in my little part of Utah let alone the rest of Utah. I would have to make myself go practice skills instead of go explore some new terrain.
That said, I do love technical trails. I just learned about "Skidder" trails, ride straight down a mountain with minimal trail work, going over whatever logs and roots and rocks are there and you have a skidder trail. Some young guys can go pretty fast but mostly it's about controlling speed and dealing with obstacles. I also like trails like Gooseberry Mesa down near Zion National Park. It's all tech riding on rock. I can spend all day going 10 miles. https://www.trailforks.com/trails/south-rim/
Steven Kotler and you and I are all outliers. It's not normal for people to be as active as we are at our ages. Why is it that we are still doing it and so many others aren't? Is it because of the way we have lived the earlier parts of our lives? Is it because we are wired differently? Is it because we were lucky and our bodies didn't deteriorate as quickly? It is a fact that even those of us who refuse to stop will one day be forced to stop. At 57 I climb Aconcagua (the highest peak in the western hemisphere, 22,841) by myself in two days. Then I made an attempt on the south wall of the same peak. A climb that has only been accomplished by a handful of other people. I failed but I did manage to break my ankle on my hasty retreat. http://themccarthyfarm.com/aconcagua.htm
I wouldn't want to try that now a 67. As much as I hate to see it happening I am getting slower and weaker and I break easier than I did just 10 years ago. I think when I'm 77 I will be happy if I am still riding my bike on a regular basis. And if all I can do is ride slow on easy trails I hope I am happy with it. But maybe by then I will have a new obsession and I won't be so concerned about biking anymore. Maybe I'll be kiteboarding instead.
Not easy but just challenging enough (fear/skill) to keep you fully engaged mentally and finish with a moderate amount of satisfaction that you were able to do it?
Thomas, have you considered adding a chain ring bash guard so that you can attempt logs that scrape... and maybe learn the techniques to get over them without scraping?
That's an interesting article - thanks Griff. My wife is a social worker who does a lot of work with the older population and she has a similar approach to keep her clients mentally sharp. If you are good at crosswords, switch to Sudoku or try online scrabble. If you read a lot join a book group and discuss what you read. If you paint in oils, try a charcoal sketch. The benefits are gained by pursuing related activities.
In riding that can naturally extend to 'if you like trackstands, learn to ride skinnys' or more generally if you are a mountain biker, learn a specific skill. And to be honest even a low degree of competence at a few different skills will give you much more of a benefit on the trail than the mastery of just one. I'm debating challenging myself to get a third of the way through each RLC course.
The comment about always riding the same trails also hits home. For various medical & personal reasons I've only ridden my local set of (flow) trails for the last two years - admittedly on about 6 different bikes, but still on the same 30km of trail network. I enjoy it when I get there but it doesn't excite me beforehand and I have to make myself go sometimes. I need to start looking around at other places to ride again.
That's a helpful insight, Dogtank. Pursuing related activities in a way that's new.
And yes, that way of thinking can be applied to MTB skills as you mentioned. And for you, getting a third of the way through each RLC course is a great idea! For others, here's the link to see all their courses:
I would add that some MTB skills have one or more subset skills that could be considered 'new.' For example, after learning a basic nose pivot, learning each of these variations could be considered a new skill:
Josh Turknett said this in his podcast episode about music:
"And again, this is why I like music so much for this because there are endless opportunities for people to go back to being a beginner: you can learn a new style, a new technique, a new instrument, a new genre."
As for the problem of always riding the same trails, do your local trails have a variety of technical challenges? If you, do you session them in creative ways? See my sessioning mini-course for more on how to session:
Thanks Griff. I often head out with the intention of sessioning a section of track but normally get carried away and end up riding the same trails in roughly the same order using roughly the same lines. And wierdly, often at roughly the same speed regardless of whether I'm on a drop bar full rigid monstorcross bike or a 5" travel duallie. I need to manage my instincts better.
After reading these discussion I dug out some juggling rings from the shed that I bought years ago but never really used. It is a very good example of related activities and it's interesting to watch my body figure out their dynamics and adapt some well worn mental juggling pathways....
Oooh, that's a great idea to start playing with those juggling rings. I did the same thing with a kendama that I bought a couple of years ago but never really used like you. I've started practicing in between my 90-minute focused work/writing sessions.
Impressive reaching out for supportive information..........even for an Old Geezer.....
Again, the trick is to interpret such specialized data back into the Applied Use.......in this case MTB. Seems to me there is some good practical advice here from the specialists, who are trying to interpret themselves for us..........but, again one must beware of confusing basic intentions: our main goal is (presumably) not brain therapy but improving MTB skills. The determinants and limiting factors will come from us wanting to bike well, not from avoiding dementia. In fact, outdoor "Risk Exercise" is, by itself a good way to restore that Paleo Hunter/Gatherer physiology that will keep our mental processes functioning well...........and give us some fun.
Of course, there is a performance decline as we age, and we need to build a gradual dumbing down into our expectations. Our Risk Management should help us preempt injury and still present a way to challenge ourselves and push our current levels.
The Joy of Striving and the Exhileration of Success in our MTB should prevent the slide into contemporary idleness that our culture seems to encourage............and stave off the dreaded dementia as a useful side effect.
I need to find a more rounded rock for my own efforts..............Thanks........
"... one must beware of confusing basic intentions: our main goal is (presumably) not brain therapy but improving MTB skills."
I agree. I do think, however, that having a mindset about getting old that despite the struggles and discomfort that's part of trying to improve, we know it's good for our brain and could help "stave off the dreaded dementia as a useful side effect" as you wrote. For some of us, that might help add a little to our motivation to get out there and practice today!
You also wrote:
"... the slide into contemporary idleness that our culture seems to encourage"
You may be interested in the new book by Michael Easter titled:
The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort to Reclaim Your Wild, Healthy, Happy Self
“AAARRRGGGHHH! I can’t do a manual front-wheel lift more than an inch. But I’m so glad my brain loves this!”) LOL
Love this article Griff!
As always you provide some great info to ponder and help me to want to continue my skills journey - Thank you!
You're welcome, Renee. Thanks for your kind comments.
Absolutely agree! I was doing the same old trails until recently, when I decided it was time to up my game just a bit by trying some new trails. Haven't made too much progress but have noticed that I'm more energized and seemingly 'on' more of the time. A wonderful feeling at 64! Thanks for this post!
You're welcome, Kristin. And yes, riding new trails and more challenging segments of your usual trail routes is a great way to stimulate cognitive demand.
I'm curious... do you sometimes ride trails or trail segments that feel dangerous?
I feel mountain biking, especially with friends, hits a lot of things they say are modifiable risk factors of declining brain health: learning new skills, aerobic activity and building social connections. A bit of truth to the t-shirt slogan that "you don't stop riding because you get old, you get old because you stop riding!"
Mike, yes indeed, on that t-shirt slogan!
FYI, 'Gnar' author Steven Kotler rates mountain biking as a 9 on scale of 1-10 for the level of cognitive demand it provides. Of course, the devil is in the details. If you always leisurely ride the same easy trails by yourself, it would drop to the bottom.
I can't say that I have any knowledge of what keeps the brain healthy but I like what you are saying here. At 67 I'm starting to worry a bit about the phenomenon that occurs between 60 and 70. That being the serious reduction in people out being active at or over the age of 70.
My wife says I have an obsessive personality and for the past 6 or 7 years I have been obsessed with MTB. Not that mountain biking is new to me, just the obsession. It started when our daughter decided to be on the NICA team and I became a coach. I taught skiing for over 40 years so I knew that good coaching could seriously shorten the learning curve for our riders but no one really knew how or what to teach them. That got me going on my MTB obsession. I still coach the NICA team but now I've taken on the job of trail building and maintenance of one of our local trail systems. Now I'm obsessing over how to build trails that are even more fun and interesting to ride.
I am excited to show this post of yours to my wife so I can show her that I'm really just keeping myself young and healthy with all my obsessing. Thanks for the great post.
Cheers
Ken
Ken, I showed your comment to my wife and she loved it. So thank you. I tend to be obsessive about MTB as well, but I've learned to keep it under control (mostly) because I like being happily married!
Props for your NICA coaching and learning to get better at trail building. Both of those are definitely cognitively demanding. I no longer do face-to-face coaching (my hearing keeps degrading), but I'm still in charge of our local MTB skills park and am always tinkering to make it better. My chief collaborator is a 14-year-old boy who races for the local NICA composite team.
Do you spend any time trying to get better at any MTB or skiing skills?
I have a young trail advisor who is now 15. I’ve been asking him for advice for a few years now. He can ride things that I can’t. The young and old working together. Another great way to stay young.
I spent most of my life working on skiing, all kinds of skiing; alpine, alpine racing, Nordic downhill, backcountry, cross country, XC racing, and even snowboarding. I was as good as I will ever be quite a few years ago. So no, I’m not working on improving my skiing.
Even though MTB isn’t new to me I only started trying to be good at it about 7 years ago. Speed and cornering are my main focus points. Jumps are something I have work hard to stay away from, although the small drops and jumps you encounter along more difficult trails are fine. I have two main skills I’m trying to perfect; how do I go fast over difficult terrain? and how do I get around corners without losing speed? I have spend many hours studying and practicing these skills. There is definitely an element of danger in speed. I will give you my theory on skill and danger another time.
We are so lucky here in Heber City, UT, where I live. We have around 175 miles of single track trails in and around our valley (10 minutes for home) and another 550 miles up in Park City (30 minutes from home). I ride a lot.
Do you have fat biking in winter where you are? Do you work on cornering? What are you main points of focus when cornering?
Ken, you are lucky indeed living where you do for MTB and snow sports. I feel the same here in southern MN.
I do own a fat bike as we usually have 4-5 months of winter. I ride it at night quite a bit, often group rides.
I don't work on cornering. I learned some basics a few years ago, enough to make things feel stable while going just fast enough to be a little scary but mostly fun. I don't race or try to beat my Strava times. RLC has a cornering course, but I've not taken it, even though I've been a coach there for 7 years. It seems I'm always working on other courses to up my game!
https://www.rlc-mtb.com/
Ken, I'm curious about whether you've done much park skiing/snowboarding over your 40+ years. You didn't include it in your list.
Parks are a relatively new thing at ski areas. We didn't have them when I was young and throwing myself off anything I could. They have only been common at resorts starting about 20 years ago. In 2001 I crashed my paraglider breaking my back pretty bad. That kind of ended my high flying career. I can do basic, close to the ground things but it's a thing for the young and fearless.
I haven't come across the RLS program before. It looks interesting. I'm curious, how do they get information to give feedback on? I will look into it some more.
Ken, the usual method for getting feedback from coaches at RLC is to capture some video from a practice session and upload it to whatever lesson you're working on for a particular course. A coach will view your video and then make comments.
Capturing a video of your cornering technique is not a simple task if all you have access to is a downhill trail. It's a lot easier if you have access to a pump track.
Ken, as for park skiing, I mentioned in my post that Steven Kotler published a new book, Gnar Country: Growing Old, Staying Rad, earlier this year. It's all about his quest to learn park skiing in his early 50s. So he would disagree with you that it's "it's a thing for the young and fearless" but given your back injury, I'd agree that it's wise to stick to the "basic, close to the ground things."
I know you love speed but I'm wondering if you've considered learning the slow-speed technical (trials-type) skills for MTB?
I have no double that spending more time on slow-speed trials-type riding would improve my balance and control and probably make me a better rider overall but there are problems with getting myself to do it. I grew up skiing at a little ski area in southern Idaho. It had 8 runs and 2 lifts. We spent so much time building jumps, ballet skiing, building obstacle courses, racing and playing other games because what else was there to do? You could ski every inch of terrain in one morning. Then I moved to Park City, Ut and things changed. It took all day just to ski every lift, a couple days to ski every run and several years to find all the secret powder stashes hiding in the trees or under cliffs. And that was just one of the three ski areas in town. Then there is the backcountry skiing. Still after 42 years of trying I still haven't skied it all. I didn't have time to play the games I once did, I was too busy skiing.
Biking is now the same. I don't have enough days left to ride all the trails available right here in my little part of Utah let alone the rest of Utah. I would have to make myself go practice skills instead of go explore some new terrain.
That said, I do love technical trails. I just learned about "Skidder" trails, ride straight down a mountain with minimal trail work, going over whatever logs and roots and rocks are there and you have a skidder trail. Some young guys can go pretty fast but mostly it's about controlling speed and dealing with obstacles. I also like trails like Gooseberry Mesa down near Zion National Park. It's all tech riding on rock. I can spend all day going 10 miles. https://www.trailforks.com/trails/south-rim/
Steven Kotler and you and I are all outliers. It's not normal for people to be as active as we are at our ages. Why is it that we are still doing it and so many others aren't? Is it because of the way we have lived the earlier parts of our lives? Is it because we are wired differently? Is it because we were lucky and our bodies didn't deteriorate as quickly? It is a fact that even those of us who refuse to stop will one day be forced to stop. At 57 I climb Aconcagua (the highest peak in the western hemisphere, 22,841) by myself in two days. Then I made an attempt on the south wall of the same peak. A climb that has only been accomplished by a handful of other people. I failed but I did manage to break my ankle on my hasty retreat. http://themccarthyfarm.com/aconcagua.htm
I wouldn't want to try that now a 67. As much as I hate to see it happening I am getting slower and weaker and I break easier than I did just 10 years ago. I think when I'm 77 I will be happy if I am still riding my bike on a regular basis. And if all I can do is ride slow on easy trails I hope I am happy with it. But maybe by then I will have a new obsession and I won't be so concerned about biking anymore. Maybe I'll be kiteboarding instead.
Yes, definitely sometimes. Many jagged rocks and and don't-look-down cliffsides. Maybe easy for some but not for me.
Not easy but just challenging enough (fear/skill) to keep you fully engaged mentally and finish with a moderate amount of satisfaction that you were able to do it?
We don't have boulders, but we have logs. If it's high enough that my chain will scrape, I walk it.
Thomas, have you considered adding a chain ring bash guard so that you can attempt logs that scrape... and maybe learn the techniques to get over them without scraping?
LOL I just put on Catalyst pedals to help with my odd stance thanks to a childhood injury and 4E feet... it never ends, does it? I'll look into them!
Ahh yes, James Wilson! I think you'll like those.
That's an interesting article - thanks Griff. My wife is a social worker who does a lot of work with the older population and she has a similar approach to keep her clients mentally sharp. If you are good at crosswords, switch to Sudoku or try online scrabble. If you read a lot join a book group and discuss what you read. If you paint in oils, try a charcoal sketch. The benefits are gained by pursuing related activities.
In riding that can naturally extend to 'if you like trackstands, learn to ride skinnys' or more generally if you are a mountain biker, learn a specific skill. And to be honest even a low degree of competence at a few different skills will give you much more of a benefit on the trail than the mastery of just one. I'm debating challenging myself to get a third of the way through each RLC course.
The comment about always riding the same trails also hits home. For various medical & personal reasons I've only ridden my local set of (flow) trails for the last two years - admittedly on about 6 different bikes, but still on the same 30km of trail network. I enjoy it when I get there but it doesn't excite me beforehand and I have to make myself go sometimes. I need to start looking around at other places to ride again.
That's a helpful insight, Dogtank. Pursuing related activities in a way that's new.
And yes, that way of thinking can be applied to MTB skills as you mentioned. And for you, getting a third of the way through each RLC course is a great idea! For others, here's the link to see all their courses:
https://hub.rlc-mtb.com/courses
I would add that some MTB skills have one or more subset skills that could be considered 'new.' For example, after learning a basic nose pivot, learning each of these variations could be considered a new skill:
https://hub.rlc-mtb.com/c/nose-pivots-stoppies
Rotating Nose Pivot
Stoppie and Rotating Stoppie
Front Wheel Hops
Nose Manual
Josh Turknett said this in his podcast episode about music:
"And again, this is why I like music so much for this because there are endless opportunities for people to go back to being a beginner: you can learn a new style, a new technique, a new instrument, a new genre."
As for the problem of always riding the same trails, do your local trails have a variety of technical challenges? If you, do you session them in creative ways? See my sessioning mini-course for more on how to session:
https://mtbpracticelab.substack.com/p/mtb-sessioning-online-challenge-mini-course
Thanks Griff. I often head out with the intention of sessioning a section of track but normally get carried away and end up riding the same trails in roughly the same order using roughly the same lines. And wierdly, often at roughly the same speed regardless of whether I'm on a drop bar full rigid monstorcross bike or a 5" travel duallie. I need to manage my instincts better.
After reading these discussion I dug out some juggling rings from the shed that I bought years ago but never really used. It is a very good example of related activities and it's interesting to watch my body figure out their dynamics and adapt some well worn mental juggling pathways....
Oooh, that's a great idea to start playing with those juggling rings. I did the same thing with a kendama that I bought a couple of years ago but never really used like you. I've started practicing in between my 90-minute focused work/writing sessions.
Impressive reaching out for supportive information..........even for an Old Geezer.....
Again, the trick is to interpret such specialized data back into the Applied Use.......in this case MTB. Seems to me there is some good practical advice here from the specialists, who are trying to interpret themselves for us..........but, again one must beware of confusing basic intentions: our main goal is (presumably) not brain therapy but improving MTB skills. The determinants and limiting factors will come from us wanting to bike well, not from avoiding dementia. In fact, outdoor "Risk Exercise" is, by itself a good way to restore that Paleo Hunter/Gatherer physiology that will keep our mental processes functioning well...........and give us some fun.
Of course, there is a performance decline as we age, and we need to build a gradual dumbing down into our expectations. Our Risk Management should help us preempt injury and still present a way to challenge ourselves and push our current levels.
The Joy of Striving and the Exhileration of Success in our MTB should prevent the slide into contemporary idleness that our culture seems to encourage............and stave off the dreaded dementia as a useful side effect.
I need to find a more rounded rock for my own efforts..............Thanks........
You're welcome, Rusty. You wrote:
"... one must beware of confusing basic intentions: our main goal is (presumably) not brain therapy but improving MTB skills."
I agree. I do think, however, that having a mindset about getting old that despite the struggles and discomfort that's part of trying to improve, we know it's good for our brain and could help "stave off the dreaded dementia as a useful side effect" as you wrote. For some of us, that might help add a little to our motivation to get out there and practice today!
You also wrote:
"... the slide into contemporary idleness that our culture seems to encourage"
You may be interested in the new book by Michael Easter titled:
The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort to Reclaim Your Wild, Healthy, Happy Self
https://eastermichael.com/book/
Great article, Griff. Good to keep my nearly 70 year old brain (and body) challenged.
You're welcome, John. It's challenging indeed to embrace the discomfort that accompanies learning new/hard stuff.
Somewhat related: the stress of performing can be helpful with mitigating cognitive decline:
https://mtbpracticelab.substack.com/p/mtb-sessioning-practicing-vs-performing