Sunday, July 3, 2011

Mountain Biking - First time out

Saturday was my first time out on the trails on my new bike. It was a beautiful morning and the park wasn't too busy. I have to admit I was feeling a little bit rusty out there, since I haven't been on a bike since last summer pretty much. At the park you get killed right from the get go as you climb a steep hill right from the parking lot to the main road - I had to stop for a sec and catch my breath. Then there is another hill (off road) that is a bit rocky and very steep. I had to push my bike up part of this. So by the time I got to the main trail, I was already tired.

After about 10 minutes, the burn in my legs dissappeared and my breathing shallowed and we hit an off road loop - the trail is pretty rocky, there are hills that are covered with rock and tree stumps and there are areas that are smooth but have sharp inclines. My bike was fantastic on the rocky areas. My old bike was a leisure bike so it had thin wheels and no treads and I use to get knocked around on these trails - my new bike has nice thick wheels with solid treads and I just breezed through the rocky areas. The only downfall was that because of the treads I find I am a lot slower on the smooth areas and I get more timed because it takes more effort to move the bike. I guess that really isn't a downfall though because I'm probably burning more calories. So we rode yesterday for 90 minutes and covered approximately 20k of trail.

Looking forward togetting out there again next weekend. Right now my focus is moved to today. I am going boxing.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Riding a bike again is one of my goals, I mean besides the stationary one at the gym :)

I don't think I'll be as brave as you & face rocky paths. Even as a kid I was afraid to go down hill which when you live in NL is pretty much everywhere!

Anne H said...

Wow - you are really do things I (and others) just dream about! Keep it up!

Laurie said...

Nice wheels!