CLYDESDALE RUNNING

It’s embarrassing to admit that I had never been on a mountain bike trail until just few days shy of 29, but at least I got there, and suspect I’ll be going back. I had a blast with Garrett at the gorgeous Kettle Moraine State Forest Southern Unit’s John Muir Trails.

The weather was perfect, right around 65, breezy, and sunny. We stopped off for a quick bite in LaGrange and proceeded to the trailhead. Our first loop around the “green” trail was a little slow, since I was just trying to get the feel. A good rest at the head, a fill-up on Gatorade, and we were off for a much faster romp the second time around. I forgot to start my watch on the second trip, but a guess puts it at about a 15-minute improvement. I took some of the declines with more courage, caught more air, battled my way up the inclines, met a tree personally, sunk into some quicksand, took a mud-bath, escaped a sasquatch, and even tipped over trying to push it up a rugged incline that I didn’t even attempt on the first go.

Even though I’ve known no other, the trail doesn’t seem very technical, but it can be fast, and coming off of a road bike, going slow isn’t really my cup of tea. The Trek survived, but now I see the benefits of a lighter bike with a better suspension fork. I think I’ll shop around for a cheap, used Judy, and some lighter components. I escaped without any harm, and I found a fascinating new form of cross-training. Hell, maybe Dr. Jon is right, and I’ll be doing off-road triathlons before I realize it.

FYI, I bailed on the thought of a half-marathon this fall. I doubt I’ll do anything before the year turns into history, but I’m still logging miles and am a little less bummed about not having anything scheduled. I sure as hell am keeping my eyes peeled for something though.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 31st, 2006 at 7:20 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.