Sunday 26th January 2014
Cycling (01:23:56 / 8.54 Miles / 6.10 MPH / HRZ 2)
Mountain Biking
Something a bit different today. In fact it was a first for both me and Ben.
We went Mountain Biking.
I had always sworn that it was not for me as it looks a bit scary and tough. The prospect of falling off seems incredibly high and the combination of mud, slippery rocks and trees makes it a daunting prospect. Add that to the thought that for every minute of downhill thrill rush there was probably about 10 minutes of grind upwards.
However, Ben was keen and thanks to my generous neighbour who gave him an old Mountain Bike for free, we were able to hit the trails at Castlewellan Forest Park. I had to hire a bike because despite the Bike shop-esque look to my garage, I don’t have a mountain bike hanging up among my collection of bikes.
The trails are really well designed and just like the Guy in the shop said, they started out gently and built up in terms of difficulty and therefore confidence building. He was so right. I definitely found that we were able to cope with more complex trails and obstacles as we progressed through the ride.
I was genuinely impressed with how Ben handled the bike. He lacked a bit of stamina in his legs and found the uphill sections a challenge, but then again I’m not exactly a mountain goat myself and I was happy to take it at his pace and he walked a couple of the tougher sections. His stamina will definitely come along as he is pretty fit from Rugby anyway.
His bike handling was good and to the amazement of both of us, neither of us fell off. I was delighted to see him tackling some of the jumps and rough sections well and obviously enjoying it.
I can really see how MTB would improve your bike handling skills and that in turn builds confidence.
We weren’t exactly cranking the pace, but as a first go it was more about education and fun to se if we really liked it, and I can say that we will definitely be back for more. It was great craic.
Importantly for me, the sore knee that had put me out of action for a few days held up well enough under the test and I’m hopeful with a few more days of rest it will be strong enough to get back to full training again.
Week 11 Summary
7 Hrs 01 Mins
Swim 4050
Bike 49.20 Miles
Run 12.41 Miles
Another disappointing week.
Although I should caveat that with the fact that at least I managed to get 7 hours in, albeit I should have done about another 50% on top of that.
The main reason for the reduced volume this week is that I picked up a bit of a knee injury on Wednesday and it made me miss out on a few key sessions, notably my Tempo run and long ride.
It appears to be a fairly common cycling injury: http://www.thetritouch.co.uk/cyclists-spring-knee-pain-and-what-to-do-about-it and it is hopefully on the mend. I will try to build in some muscle work to prevent it recurring.
The week ahead will be dependant upon the knee pain, but I’m hopeful of a good week of swimming and potentially a couple pf light runs – I might stay away from the tempo run until all pain is gone from the knee. I’m hopeful of being able to get back on the bike fairly soon too.
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