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CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush charged up punishing climbs and down steep dirt paths on his high-performance bike Monday, at one point sailing over the handlebars and landing flat on his back.
The president dusted himself off from his fall on a treacherous descent, waved his medics away and kept rolling, a small cut on his knee and dirt on his back the only signs he had wrecked. He allowed that he was a bit shaken up.
While the Democrats were at their convention, working to wrest his job away, Bush was indulging his new hobby, which he sees as a way to get his heart rate up and spend time outdoors without aggravating his achy knees. With an Associated Press reporter riding with him, Bush pedaled to remote corners of his 1,600-acre ranch.
Bush has been riding the knobby-tired bikes since February, and he rides with abandon.
He takes on dangerous sections that would give veterans pause. He keeps a cramp-inducing pace on long uphill sections, panting hard, emitting low grunts with each stroke of the pedals.
Over an 18-mile ride that lasted an hour and 20 minutes, he burns about 1,200 calories and his heart rate reaches 168 beats per minute.
"At my age, you're more concerned about the cardiovascular" benefits of a workout, the 58-year-old president said.
"Swimming is outside exercise, but you don't get the feeling of the wind rushing by you, nor can you swim your favorite piece of property," he said.
Crashes are routine in mountain biking.
On May 22, he lost traction on a dirt road, scraping his chin, upper lip, nose, right hand and both knees. The next day, a Secret Service agent riding behind him slammed onto the ground at high speed on a paved section, breaking his collarbone and three ribs.