IM Louiville

IM Louiville
Bikes racked at Ironman Louisville 2010

Friday, August 18, 2006

Mountain Biking

So yesterday I went mountain biking for the first time in over a year. Now, I know that mountain biking is supposed to increase my bike handling skills, but are these people crazy? They expect you to ride over big boulders, huge tree roots sticking out, big logs and the occasional fabricated jump. Ridiculous, I tell you.

Within the first five minutes, I'm sweating my butt off on what was supposed to be a "casual" ride. I was getting smacked by tree branches, thorn bushes and I swear I ran into some poison ivy. And then, when you go to avoid a huge ass tree root sticking out....LOOK OUT, you're going to run into a tree!!

The turns can be very tight and are almost always blind, and you never know when another biker is coming. I thought I was going to pee my bike shorts after coming around a corner and almost riding head on into another mountain biker dude.

I wore a camel back, but I was too afraid to take my hands off the handle bars to take a drink. I'm sure I was white-knuckled as I rode down these obnoxiously steep hills. And if I wasn't flying down one, I was walking my bike to get up one. I was out of breath just walking my stupid, 30 pound mountain bike up the damn ravine.

And this is supposed to be FUN? THEN, when I stop to catch my breath, a huge swarm of mosquitoes comes over and I think I now have the West Nile Virus!

It was much harder than I remembered. And don't let your mountain biker friends tell you "Oh, we're gonna take it easy," What a crock of SH*T.

But I'll be back next week for more abuse.
I hate getting dirty.

3 comments:

RunBubbaRun said...

So where did you go? At Palos, they have creek crossing.. ohh what fun.. Mud and Horse crap all at once. Let me know if you what to do an Xterra next year... On the agenda for next year.

Anonymous said...

Poison ivy, West Nile virus, sweat, dirt...you must be counting down the days until you can do this again. I must be there to experience this fun!!!

MJ said...

Yes, RBR, it was Palos, wait, I think that's Palos! It was um...Pulaski Woods? Near Bullfrog Lake? Heck I don't know, I just go where I'm told!

Xterra? I dunno about that...of course, I said I'd never do an Ironman, and well, you see how that worked out for me.