Ride Report/ Victory Chant!

[fatbottomedgurl]

Hi Girls! I have been trying to ride more since we are now having great riding weather! No more heat but we have had some nasty wind.

I rode one of my most challenging loops today and was able to drop the time down to 2.25 hours with friends. My last best was 2.5 hours by myself. Huge improvement because we generally stop and chat here and there and when I am alone I tend to stop and breath and move on.

This is a 9-mile loop. First four miles is a steady climb up a fire road with 500' elevation gain. The next section we gain 1120' in two miles, including some crazy fast downhill in some spots. This is the first time I rode the whole section except I did walk up about 20 yards in one section. It's a real butt-kicker. Then we have an awesome single track back down. It's an 1100' descent in 3 miles with just a couple hundred feet of climbing thrown in. The top of this trail is very technical (rocky) and challenging. I did walk a couple sections, but cleared more of the technical uphill than I ever had. I love riding dirt!

Here's where we rode: Looking east, beautiful San Fernando Valley in the distance.

[Pebble]

Wow that's awesome!
Great looking countryside.

[rocknrollgirl]

Way to go! I would love to see some pics of the trail.

Keep on chuggin'

Ruth

[Trekhawk]

This is a 9-mile loop.
Here's where we rode: Looking east, beautiful San Fernando Valley in the distance.

Well done. Is that the route in red. Looks waaaayyyyy longer than 9 miles.

[emily_in_nc]

Wow, that's so cool. Neat route picture -- how did you find that? Congratulations on doing so well!

Emily

[fatbottomedgurl]

The reason it looks longer than 9 miles is those mountains are not very high!

I saved an image in Google Earth and then put the red path on it in Photoshop. With GE you can look at the terrain from any angle and elevation.

[tprevost]

Congratulations on your improvements! Great job!!!! I am such a chicken at this point... I can't wait to be able to do what you're doing!

I guess I'm gonna have to come crash (probably literally AND figuratively) one of your rides and get some tips!

You are getting better really fast and that is AWESOME!

Trac'

[RoadRaven]

Great pic FBG... really shows where you went and gives an idea of terrain

I have spent some time just looking at that - I love examing terrain/aerial pix like that.

Congrats on your time, it feels soooo good, huh?

[fatbottomedgurl]

Thanks. I just got back from riding UP the single track. On the photo it starts at the right side heading up from the street and we rode to the dark egg-shaped shadow in the middle. About a 2.5 mile climb. A real leg-burner. And I had a minor crash on the way down on some slick rock and scraped my elbow.

[emily_in_nc]

Ouch! Sorry about the crash. My scabs from my most recent (very minor) crash are just gone, though I still have a less-than-great shoulder from my very first (and most serious) mtb crash <sigh>. I guess I should bite the bullet and go to PT, but I only notice it when I do upright rows (with 10 lb. dumbbells), so I completely forget about it except 1-2 times a week when I do that particular exercise at the gym.

Hope you're just scraped and nothing worse!

Emily