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.

My new ride -

So I decided to buy a decent mountain bike. I enjoyed hitting the trails around home last summer and I just wasn't getting the full experience with the bike that I had. Plus because it didn't have any shocks, my arms and shoulders would be so sore by the time I was done. So here is a picture of the new bike.... I am hitting the trails tomorrow for the first time this season and am very excited. I plan on taking my camera so hopefully I will get some photos. Happy Canada day tomorrow. I hope you all celebrate our wonderful country and all the opportunities it offers us. To all my friends south of the boarder, happy 4th of July on Monday. Enjoy your day!

Hitting the trails....

So I have had a fantastic Labour Day weekend. Saturday night I went to see the Lost Boys, wow, they are a great bar band, they played lots of different kinds of music and there were a few people from the audience that came up to sing with them.. We asked them if they could play a song, and they told us that they could play it but one of us would have to sing..... ahhhhh a new though is forming..... bucket list item #12. Take singing lessons and then sing in front of an audience. I already know the song will be "What's going on" by 4 Non Blondes. Funny story from the bar.... a 29 yr old guy tried to pick me up- he
asked how hold I was and I asked how old he thought I was - he said 33, so I told him I was 44 and he said..... well your still hot as hell.....lololo, my friend and I laughed all the way home at that remark!

Yesterday I spent the entire day at family's place where they hold their annual horseshoe tournement... lots of food lots of drinks and lots and lots of fun......

Today I went out and met a friend of mine for some mountain biking...... some turned into lots as we rode the trails for 2 hours..... lots of hills, some I was able to ride up, some I had to push my bike up. By the end, my shirt was drenched and my body was tired but I have never felt better! I am going to take my camera out here one of these days to try and capture the beauty out there. We went to a different park today. I went to this park years ago (when I smoked, and didn't work out) and literally I was exhausted and couldn't go on after only 10 minutes.... The funny part is I never even made it into the hills, that was all on flat terrain. Today I was so proud of how far I have come.

The bonus is that in the 2 hours I burned over 700 calories..... Yay

Mountain Biking

So I headed out with a friend today. We went back to the same park we went to last month to give mountain biking a second go. You may recall last time I came home with cuts and bruises and a damages shoulder from falling from the bike a couple of times. Today was a different story. I felt like I had the hang of it out there. Challenging myself to push through the rocky sections and increaseing my speed overall. We rode for an hour and then decided we were feeling strong still so we hit another nearby park and rode for another hour and a half. By the end I truly was spent, but what a wonderful day. It felt so good to be out there pushing myself and working hard, burning calories and feeling amazingly strong doing it.

I weighed in yesterday at weight watchers and my official start weight was 250lbs, which is up about ten pounds but I am keeping positive as I know that I had a big meal and a few drinks (quite a few drinks) and was feeling very bloated so I am expecting a large loss on me weigh in next Saturday.