First MTB Ride

The plan for today was not to roll out of bed around 9 AM, have some coffee and then basically lounge around the house until it was lunch, only then getting up off the couch to eat, possibly take a nap, get up and go from there.

Instead today was going to be the official maiden ride of the new mountain bike and to say that I was excited was very accurate although I think that this was because my mind was "all in" and my body did not know what I was going to be asking it to do.

The Ride

I decided to go out to a trail head that is only a few miles and minutes away from my front door. This would be the Golden Eagle Regional park facility. I figured it was the best place to go because it was close to home and probably a fairly gentle ride for my maiden voyage. I was both right, and wrong.

First I got myself ready in the parking lot of the facility which consisted of putting on my kick-ass Five-Ten mountain bike shoes, adjusting my helmet so it fit "just so" and adjusted the belts and fittings on my Camelbak hydration back. Next I pulled my bike down off the hitch rack and put on my gloves. Once ready I pressed "start" on my iPhone application and I was off!

Within only .25 of a mile away from the car, or less I was already well aware of the difficulty of the ride. I knew it was not going to be "easy" but I did not honestly have any idea it would as hard as it actually was. I was already breathing hard and getting thick saliva in my mouth that I had to spit out as I rode along. What the hell?

I workout in one way or another pretty much every-single-day, and I have done so for more years than you can count on all your fingers and one set of toes. Yet this seemingly simple bike ride was kicking my ass. "I just don't get it", I thought to myself.

At around the 1 mile mark I could not take it any more and had to get off the bike and walk it for a few minutes and try to not only catch my breath but get a few drinks of water from the Camelbak, again hoping that it would take the edge off. Nope, I was starting to cough more and have that weird bloody / metallic taste in my mouth - wonderful, but still more like WTF?

Yeah as much as I hate to admit it, I am not as in shape as I had thought that I was. I mean back up a second, I AM in shape but I AM NOT in "bike shape" I guess is the best way to put it. Just the simple act of peddling, the dry gusty wind blowing and me trying to figure out what gear to be in on the bike so I am not peddling inefficiently all came together into exhaustion.

After just under 1.5 miles I decided that it was in my best interest to turn around and start heading back toward the car. Once back I took a look at my iPhone application and saw that I did a "little" better than I thought, I accomplished just under 3 miles even though it took just over 25 minutes, probably because of the walking portion of my trip. I was satisfied as a first ride and had a great anchor to work from and increase my performance over time.

After a good 15 solid minutes of coughing and spitting from the ride I had everything loaded back up and began heading back toward home, reflecting on my first ride. Mostly wondering why the hell it was so much more difficult than I had anticipated it would be.

Back home, it took only minutes to unload everything and get in the house to have some lunch and share the details of the ride with Cicely. She thought that I did great, but I think she was just being extra kind because she knew how much I was looking forward to the ride. This ride will NOT be my last and was actually a ton of fun on the way back because there was so much downhill riding although I had the front suspension a little too tight and therefore it was shaking me pretty good ha ha. Once I reached down and changed the suspension setting things were much better.

Blow The Dust Off

I think that will do it for today. I wanted to mainly have a little blurb, not necessarily a fully detailed and documented journal of my first ride but instead something to reflect back on and see how far I have come in a few months, or even by this time next year for example.

All-in-all the ride was a complete success and I am already looking forward to taking the ride again, only this time being able to either go a little further and if not, at least be able to go out and back without it kicking my ass so much eventually.

Photo: Quick view of today's ride. I know it's not much, but for me it's my anchor point to now know what I need to work on to improve my riding skills.