Lessons learned
I knocked the dust off my MTB today and took it out for the first MTB ride I can recall in a long time. The excessive rain this year (and ice storms last year) has had me riding road quite a bit, and I have not even thought of riding the trails until today. I was surprised at how good the trails were (only a few mud holes that always are present this time of year).
It was a great ride, made slightly better learning a few lessons in the process.
1. G-wiz has aligned his training this year for longer events. He also turned Expert this season. This is important information to consider for lesson number one: It is a bad idea to launch your return to SS MTB riding by going on a ride with someone that has already placed VERY WELL in Ouachita Challenge and is chomping at the bit to attend (and likely do well at) several other BIG races this year.
2. Forgetting your gloves on a hot day of MTB riding is a bad idea...very, very bad. I run a rigid bike with leather bar tape on the bars. Between the mud, water, and sweat, my hands are shredded. Stupid idea, but today was so beautiful, that there was no way I going to sit this ride out!
3. I recently swapped out my MTB tires to semi-slicks. I thought these things would be a stupid choice for soft trails punctuated with standing water and mud holes. Truth is, they hooked up quite well, did not tear up the trail, and in the muck they faired as well as anything. They might have given me a couple advantages today in fact. Every time we sloshed through some muck, my tires had no ability to hold any (the heavy muck could not hold on) so they turned effortlessly, and felt fast. Additionally, they have almost no rolling resistance...and I needed that advantage today!
It was a fun ride, and there seemed to be more than a few others out there enjoying the trails. Hope to see more of you out there soon!
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G's strong
Sounds like G's riding about as well as he ever has. It also appears you're not doing so bad either.
I like the bit about small knobbed tires in muddy conditions. Who would have thought of that? Less rolling resistance. Enough traction for the decent parts of the trail. Less weight to carry around from the muddies. As long as the muddy sections aren't so long you lose momentum and have to dismount it seems like a good strategy.
I am not sure
I may not be doing so bad...then again, I am not sure that I have ever ridden my SS that I did not peg my HR on every climb. There is something about riding SS in this state that makes it impossible to ever have an "easy day".
I think the PE is the same on every single speed ride...the only thing that changes is the lap time.
You Did Well
For the first time out on the trails this year, you did quit well. Even I was feeling out of it yesterday. I told Unit that it seems like I've done more trail riding this week than I have most of all year. I rode Blue River last Sunday, Landahl on Tuesday, and Binder last night. Not sure if that's the best idea considering Syllamo is tommorow. Considering this was a wim decision to race Syllamo, I'm not to much worried on how I'll do. I'll just be glad to be out riding some sweet singletrack!
Thanks
I am not sure how *well* I felt, but I did have a great time. I think I could have enjoyed the ride a lot more had I been wearing gloves.
The rain we got this morning pretty much guarantees that I will not be able to ride out there again for a few days. give me a shout next time you are coming to town.
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