Things I Learned

I did my first Wednesday night mountain bike group ride tonight. There were five of us. We rode for about 3 hours leaving at 6 and ended up with 19 miles. I learned several important lessons:

1. When they say there is only like one more short hill...... it means that there is more like 5-6 hills that each are going to make your lungs burn (from trying to breathe at 10,000 ft) and are going to make your legs hurt so bad you think they just may actually fall off.....

2. When they say that something is steep, uphill or downhill, they really do mean it. So steep in fact that you may have to walk, although on the downhills if you are willing to risk life or limb they may be rideable.

3. Mt. Biking in Illinois is not even close to the same as it is at altitude in the mountains with guys that have been doing it for many years. We have hills in IL and even have a few steep hills, but there are no steep hills that go up for 2 hours at a time. There is just no way to replicate that other than by actually doing it and it freaking hurts.

4. Anytime you go downhill, don't take it for granted, cause you will have to go back up at some point.

5. Mt. Biking really is a blast! and Don't forget to bring food!

6. Always be aware of the guy that shows up for the ride with hairy legs and baggy shorts! He is prolly stronger than you can ever dream to be!

7. It takes 3-4 years of living here in order to memorize all the trails and where they go to and come out at.

8. There are parallel trails called itch and scratch! Go figure!

Ok then, we started out climbing for about 2 hours, then we stopped to regroup. I kept up good for the most part, at times I struggled, and at times I was faster than the others. Each time we stopped for a breather they explained to me where we were and where we had been and where we were going. This is going to take me a while. They talk like this "We are going to climb for 50 more minutes up to that saddle, from there we will climb another 20 minutes up to that nipple sticking out over there, then we will go around the back side and come up that ridge over there. From there we will have 20 minutes of downhill, then a couple more short easy climbs to connect with the star wars trail and the death star downhill. From there it will be a mere 10 minutes back into town." No joke, this is what they told me and I was like yah, uh huh, good one, sounds like a plan to me..... We did end up going up abrams coming down star wars and death star (I walked my bike down this descent since I was more than a little scared of it) along with some other really cool trails. My legs and arms are fairly scratched up (that was the trail we were on) and I did go over the bars twice, although both times i was moving slow and almost able to catch myself.

In the end I am super worn out. Excellent training! Awesome guys to ride with! and I had an absolute blast!