Im Livin the Dream

Birthday

Jul 14, 1973 (Age: 51)

Location

Saint George, Utah

Name

Ben Norman

Biography

Biking Biography: In 2014 I tried riding my 10 year old, sat in the garage and only had 3 rides on it, mountain bike and I couldn't climb a stupid lame normal neighborhood street. I was just about 200 lbs and it took me 10 minutes to recover running up the stairs in my house. I went to the gym and did the stair machine, yup you read that right, the stair machine.

I only ever saw women on it but I figured it was a similar motion to pedaling a bike without being on a bike. I did that an hour a day 5 days a week on my lunch break. Then I took my bike back out and I could make that road climb to get to the local trails here.

After that, I didn't go back to the gym for 3 years. I stayed on my bike. I rode for an hour each day after work for 3 weeks to break my habit of coming home and having a beer every day at 5 o'clock. I was trading habits, a bad one for a good one in my mind. After 3 weeks I didn't want the beer anymore I wanted to ride my bike. I had done it. I had traded habits. Now the suffering really began. I rode each of those nights for an hour on the same loop. Slowly that hour turned into only 45 minutes over the 3 weeks. So I added in a little more trail to get my time back up to an hour. I just kept doing this.

After those initial 3 weeks, my wife asked me to be home for dinner so I got up at 5am to go ride before work each day, 5 days a week. I just kept doing this until I was getting up at 4am just to get in 2 hours of riding and be back in time to see the kids before they went to school and then I'd get ready and go to work. Some days I took my bike to work and rode it on my lunch break.

Then one day I joined a race. I got 4th in the beginner men 40-49. I raced the next week, again, 4th place. I raced the next week and I got 3rd this time but only because the guy that was getting 3rd didn't show up. I didn't care, a podium was a podium. I had never been on the podium. I had never won anything. I was hooked.

I kept it up over the next 4 years. I have won many races in DH, Enduro and Cross Country. I enjoy the competition but mostly I enjoy pushing and challenging myself to new heights.

I now coach a Homeschool MTB Team locally here. We had our first year this year (2018) and what a fun and great season it was.

PS. I now weigh in at 155 lbs.

I love cycling. To say it has changed my life wouldn't be accurate, It has saved my life. My wife cycles a little bit and my oldest had her first race season this year. I am very blessed.

Current Bike

Giant Trance

Gender

Male

Occupation

Handyman

Contact

Twitter

storminormanOG

Signature

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