Chipps encourages us to get (just a bit) fitter.
Do you know any rowers? They’re a special breed, aren’t they? Up before dawn for a few lengths of the river or 15km on the rowing machine before breakfast. How about triathletes? Same modus operandi, right? Up before dawn for a few pool lengths, a quick lunchtime 10k, then a feature film’s worth of Zwift for tea. And they’re always training for a specific event, rather than just the joy of it.
Do you know any mountain bikers like that? Probably not. Or none who’ll admit it. There seems to be an odd disconnect between mountain bikers and the search for fitness that has always puzzled me. Perhaps it’s because our chosen sport is so damn fun: it’s rare to see a runner whooping with delight at the bottom of a descent, or horse riders high-fiving. So how can a fun thing like off-roading also be training?
What we do is pleasurable (most of the time…) and the ‘point A and back to point A’ of most rides reinforces that ‘fun for its own sake’ image. It’s one of the reasons cyclists got a bit of a bad rap during lockdown – we were seen to be actually enjoying our daily hour of freedom, whereas, for much of the population, exercise is something to be endured as an obligation, a penance, or as a winter means to a beach body or summertime hilltop walking holiday.
That’s not to say mountain bikers aren’t out there, putting the work in to get fitter, it’s just that it doesn’t seem to be very acceptable behaviour, let alone laudable. A rider who admits to getting out purely to train is viewed as a bit of a swot or somehow cheating, so ‘actual training’ is often done in miserable, secret solitude, if at all.
A Singletrack survey once asked readers about their fitness programmes. A few readers admitted to following a regime, while a few more said they picked and chose bits of training plans to suit them. However, by far the biggest group said they hoped to get fitter by some sort of osmosis without actually doing anything about it.
Getting fitter takes some effort, though rarely as much as you’d think. Yes, getting actually ‘fit’ does take effort, lifestyle change, sacrifice and graft, but getting ‘fitter’ often just involves doing more of what you enjoy about the sport. Just ride a bit more, ride a bit longer, a bit harder, rest more, drink a bit less, skip second helpings… and yet if a riding buddy says they’re on a ‘new year, new me’ mission to get a little fitter, we always have to ask, ‘What for?’
As simple as I make it out to be, that search for a little more fitness can be a hard road – especially ridden alone. On a cold, dark night or early morning, it can seem daunting to head to the dreaded turbo, or put the lights on the bars and try to squeeze one more ride into the limited hours of the week.
Fitness is a fickle thing to experience, with results barely visible for weeks. Throwing yourself against the same timed hill can feel pointless unless there’s a measurable increase in performance, but the climb towards fitness is never evenly paced. Yet, with perseverance, the janky steps up the ziggurat of fitness can be climbed. How high you go is up to you, your spare time, motivation and goals. But regardless of where you start on the staircase ‘fitter’ is always possible, while ‘fit’ will always elude all but the gifted and dedicated.
As we get into 2025, how about we stop with the snarky comments to friends trying to get a little fitter? Don’t question their motives or methods, just be supportive. And if it’s you, then say it proudly. Better yet, offer to accompany those friends on their journey to fitness. A cold, dark ride is way more fun when shared, even if it’s just some ‘pointless’ hill reps or a post-work lap of the hills.
And then, in summer, when you’re standing at the top of that hill, wondering where your friends are, you’ll think ‘Oh, so this is what it feels like…’ – Chipps