Ride, eat, sleep, repeat. Sounds good to me! Imagine that this is how it could be—doing your favorite things every day, Groundhog Day-style. Of course, unlike the film, I’d like to have options for other things. I’m only human after all, and there would be days when I'd be too tired to ride, or maybe I would just want to do a jigsaw puzzle or something.

Then, there are the chores: the house isn’t going to vacuum itself and the fallen leaves aren’t just going to conveniently blow into the neighbor’s yard. And don’t even get me started on the demands of having to pay for all the stuff. A steady job has ruined many a good mountain biker. In a close-to-perfect world (I’m not asking for everything), I would be able to do the big three—ride, eat, sleep—at will.

Ride. Well, this one has seen me wax poetic many times about its virtues and benefits to not only the body but the brain—how an ever-unwinding trail can transport you to a symbiosis of bike, human, and earth...Geez, there I go again!

Eat. There is something amazing about putting in big efforts and wearing yourself down a bit then sitting down for a good, yummy, nutritious (well, within reason), rejuvenating meal. When your body is craving nutrients, food really does taste better. As the saying goes, “Hunger is the best sauce!” Of course, during longer rides, you will want to eat some carbs and calories to keep the energy flowing and your legs spinning. Most of these, however, are usually consumed as drinks, gels, or cubes. So it’s not really filling and certainly not the same as a big, beautiful burrito. I have done rides where I’ve literally burned a whole day's worth of calories. Let’s just say, the hunger sauce produced a chef’s kiss for all the food that day. 

That brings me to the third biggie: Sleep. All right then, you've had a luscious and tiring bike ride where the stairstep rocks came frequently, but you kept powering through, lifting your front wheel up and over each ledge and pedaling strong yet light to get the back end over as well. Then, you ate that delicious burrito smothered in green sauce and those hot carrots and cucumber slices on the side. Yum. Now comes the underrated part. We’ve all been sleeping from the day we were born, so we kinda take it for granted. But there is magic that happens when we sleep: our bodies rebuild the parts that we’ve worked so hard for our own enjoyment. And the kicker is that the rebuilt things tend to be stronger! Plus, how good is curling up with a comfy blanket on a cushy mattress with your head all mooshed into a pillow? Super good, right?

This is where the dreamy bonus part comes in: Repeat. Getting to ride the next day and the day after that and eat heartily and sleep soundly any day I want would be an amazing thing. For now, it’s out of reach for me on any regular basis, but I try to make the first three parts happen as often as possible, even if there isn’t a repeat. Sometimes, though, I’m able to swing a multi day riding vacation where I can do the day-after-day rides, eat the delicious things, and sleep the deep sleep. The good life!