Three friends (well, two friends and a guy I'd never met before) and I left Ann Arbor at 7 a.m. to head to Oakland County for Massive Fallout, a 50-mile mountain bike ride spanning four connecting trails of varying difficulty. I've never mountain biked 50 miles and definitely didn't plan to yesterday. We'd hoped to modify the course so we only did two trails and ended up back at the start by 2 p.m. This, of course, included a stop at the brewery we'd be passing along the way.
I started out flying. I was fearless! Passing people! (Well, OK, I didn't actually pass anyone.) Making it up the steepest hills! Zipping around the tightest corners! I was having a great time. But halfway through the first trail, Addison Oaks, I suddenly realized that, um, my back gears wouldn't shift. At all.
We stopped to investigate. I assumed it was a simple fix, but unfortunately, when your rear cable completely snaps in half, there's nothing simple about it. I don't know about you, but I don't carry cables with me on my rides, and even if I did, I wouldn't know how to replace one. We knew there was an aid station at the end of the trail, and I was able to ride the bike if I didn't shift gears at all, so I single-speeded the rest of the trail. Not fun. I did make it up some of the hills and got a killer quad workout, but more often than not, I had to get off and walk. Walking your bike up steep hills in the middle of the woods is freaking exhausting. By the time we made it out, my energy was completely zapped.
We made it to the aid station and an incredible mechanic from Trail's Edge fixed me up -- for free -- while we scarfed down brats from the grill. 30 minutes later, we were able to continue our ride, although we had to cut out the brewery stop. We ended up riding about 25 miles total and it took three-and-a-half hours. Even though I feel like I'm not in great shape these days, obviously the biking to work is doing something for my endurance, because I felt absolutely fine when we were done and could have kept going. (I'm glad I didn't, judging by my aching body this morning.)
I've come to the conclusion that mountain biking is my one true love in the endurance sports category. It's the only sport I see as FUN and not a workout. As a side note, I encourage any single ladies out there to start hitting the trails, because I'd say the ratio at this ride was at LEAST 90-10 men to women. Come to think of it, it's rare for me to ever see other chicks on the trails. Leave it to me to get into a manly sport.
Okay, that wraps up my ride report. Time to hit the books!
PS - It's kinda lame that these are the only two pictures of me from Saturday that exist, but I promised...
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