Brought Loco Out Of Retirement
I used to ride MTB a long time before I rode road bikes. Since 1999? (Not counting the many years I rode a cheapo mountain bike with my kid.) Used to go on MTB vacations twice a year, rode the big 50 mile off-road rides, rode almost every day, put in hundreds of hours building local trails.
Then, a year ago October, I borrowed BF's old MTB with road tires and rode 37 miles of the Horrible Hundred Century. Oh oh. Stopped MTBing, (rode my _nice_ MTB exactly once last summer, under duress) and concentrated on road riding.
Joined the cycling club, fell in with a nice group, who, for the first time ever, scheduled a MTB ride today, instead of road. So last night I dusted off Loco, put air in the rear shock, and the tires, prayed the tires would still be up this AM, and they were, put a seatpost and saddle on, since I had robbed those for the hybrid, got out my Camelbak...
Rode the old familiar trails of years ago. Florida MTB trails are twisty, somewhat hilly, sandy, rooty, not really technical, just tricky. At first the bike felt so strange. (But oh that full suspension felt good!) And the handlebars felt so wide! And the whole bike is so heavy! And I had to raise the seat about a billion times. But it came back pretty quickly.
My greatest discovery was how _strong_ I'd gotten on the road. I can stand, MTBing, now, as much as I want. I can climb and stand! I climbed my old nemesis hill three times in a row, standing, not in granny gear, only to bomb back down for a photo op! It's so weird. This is the hill that I struggled for years just to be able to ride in one shot in the middle gear. Never twice in a day. Never repeats. I'd be so out of breath, with legs burning from lactic acid, that I'd have to stop for ten minutes at the top to recover! What the heck happened? It's way more fun now!
I think, on Sundays, if there is no cool road group ride planned, I will go back to MTBing. It's nice for a change, and Loco has been waiting patiently all this time...
Nanci
