Cycling Legend Ned Overend

Ned Overend Keeps Going and Going
by Peggy McKay Shinn
(For XLSports.com)

Ned Overend is like the Energizer Bunny. His supercharged batteries are now going on 20 years, and they've kept him at the top of his game the whole time.

Ned's latest conquest has been off-road triathlons. Namely, the XTERRA World Championships, a swim/mountain bike/trail run triathlon in Maui that mountain biking's "elder statesman" has won the past 2 years. And at age 44, he's going for another win this year.

When Ned retired from pro mountain biking in 1996, he knew he'd keep competing. It's in his blood. Or more like the strands of his DNA. But he wanted to do it his way. Pick certain races - mountain runs like Imogene Pass near Telluride, off-road triathlons like the XTERRA Championships, and even regular road triathlons. Competitions he could train for and still be a father, husband, businessman, author, trails advocate, and genuine nice guy.

Even when Ned was at the height of his career - winning the first mountain biking UCI World Championships in 1990, six national titles, and several World Cups, among countless other titles - he's always kept a certain balance in his life. A balance that's likely a key to his success.

Ned got into mountain biking in the early 1980's, a few years after he got into the endurance athlete thing. He started doing mountain runs, and in 1980 and 1981, he finished second in the grueling, knee-crushing Pike's Peak Marathon in Colorado Springs. He also won a triathlon in Estes Park, Colorado in 1980. Then he got into road cycling, a sport where the lightweight, aerobically-gifted climber excelled, to say the least. But he was working at Mountain Bike Specialists in Durango and, in 1983, decided to try a mountain bike race - the Road Apple Rally in Farmington, New Mexico. He won.

When asked why he finally switched to the knobby tires for good, he says it's a more individual sport than road racing, and there wasn't as much travel, at least in the early years. He credits his early success to his background in motocross racing- something he did in high school which helped him learn good off-road skills - and his good climbing ability on the bike.

During the late '80s and early '90s, he was the guy to beat on the mountain bike circuit, although few did. Youngsters like John Tomac came on the scene and threatened to dethrone "Deadly Nedly." While the youngsters were catching big air on the course, Ned was quietly and confidently powering up the climbs, showing them what they still had to learn. Even as late as 1994, at an age when most people are on the verge of a mid-life crisis, he was still winning World Cups. That year, he won one in Italy and another in Switzerland - a feat he's proud of because it's so hard to win in Europe, he says.

Then, the great Ned retired. Or so it seemed. "I knew I was retiring in 1996, but I knew I wasn't planning to stop racing," he says.

That year, the XTERRA Championships started and attracted big-time triathletes. Ned decided to enter and finished third that year.

"It fit right in with the sports I was doing," he explains. "But it took awhile to get good with guys like Mike Pigg, Jimmy Riccitello, and Mike Tobin (a duathlete). Tobin is a great hill climber and terrific runner."

Good indeed. By 1997, the race was expanded to a series, and Ned finished second in the Championships. In 1998 and 1999, he finally "got good" and won the title.

"It reminds me of the early days of mountain biking," he says of the XTERRA series races. "A lot of these courses are like an adventure."

In a race held in Richmond, Virginia, he remembers swimming in the James River at drought stage. The water was so low the competitors had to slither through the mud. The run wasn't much better. It went through a swamp. In another off-road race in New Jersey, he encountered a bear during the trail run.

What's Ned's secret? He credits both his performance and his long career to a combination of intense training and adequate rest, a balance rarely achieved by athletes who tend to think more is better.

"I'm not a compulsive trainer," he says. "I've always trained less volume than my peers. I'm not afraid to get some rest."

He says many athletes think they are going to go out, work hard, and improve. But he stresses that you will only improve from quality rest after quality intensity. Without enough rest, you can't do high intensity training. "It's the 'No Man's Zone,'" he says. "Your training graph should have lots of peaks and valleys."

Having the right attitude toward pain is also key. "Most successful endurance athletes have a different way of experiencing hard training," he explains. "They embrace it as something positive. If you look at it in a positive way, there is less mental stress about it, and stress needs recovery too." In other words, if pain is viewed as an asset rather than something to be endured, then hard training can actually be fun, and your brain doesn't need to recover from fun.

But in truth, Ned's "secret" is everything he does. The complete Overend package: his training ethic, his constant search for more and better training literature, not obsessing, and not stressing. Having a family and other obligations has helped him keep a good balance, he says. He only trains 12-15 hours/week, and he admits that this isn't much less than what he did during his prime mountain biking days.

These days, Ned's other obligations include working with Specialized in their R&D department and with promotions. He's also partners in Bouré Sportswear, a Durango company that makes cycling clothing.

He's a big trails advocate too, working actively with IMBA (International Mountain Bicycling Association). In March 2000, he donated about $4,000 worth of equipment, including the bike he won the 1999 XTERRA Championships on, to an auction that raised money and awareness for IMBA's Ned Overend Endowment to promote trail building and advocacy on the local level. He also works for trail advocacy in his own backyard; he's on the board of three groups in Durango promoting trail and land use.

Then there's the book he wrote, Mountain Bike Like a Champion, that hit the shelves last summer. It's a resource for mountain bikers - beginners to pros - who want to race like Ned.

But to really be like Ned, remember, it's the complete package. He just keeps going and going . At a rate that puts that pink drumming bunny to shame.

http://www.boure.com/ned.html