Brought Loco Out Of Retirement

[Nanci]

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

[jobob]

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!

How cool is that ?

[Lise]

Nanci, you and Denise are my heroes. It is so cool that you find yourself so much stronger. And why not! Of course you are! But what a great demonstration. So, you mentioned photo op...share! Pix! L.

[KSH]

Awesome!

Sounds like you had FUN riding! Lots of people love riding road and moutain bikes... and it sounds like you are going to be one of those people!

Congrats on your accomplishment of getting stronger!

[maillotpois]

Excellent!! It must be so great to see your progress on the MTB. Yay!

[crazycanuck]

Welcome back to the OTHER side...*insert evil laugh*...I'm sending you subliminal messages to join the other side more often...make dirt your friend...your duallie needs dirt...

*Ahem* I had a momentary lapse of reasoning there...

Any way you'd do the gunbarrel challenge?? It's from laverton to Uluru (ayers rock).1000km.....http://www.gunbarrelchallenge.com/

c

[tattiefritter]

MTBing is definitely much more fun when your fit! When I first started MTBing I was ready to chuck it in quite a few times. The climbs were so hard, then once I had gotten to the top I was too knackered to enjoy the descent! Road riding (commuting mainly) kicked my fitness up a hell of a lot and I grew to love it.

I find now that both types of riding feed each other: MTB for hills, intervals and bike handling and road for damn good fitness.

It would be criminal not to let the Loco out more often.

[DirtDiva]

So glad you've rediscovered your roots. It's fun, eh?

[Nanci]

My MTB friends were all accusing me of going over to the Dark Side. I think they were happy to see me back. The group leader of my road group, who organized the MTB ride, didn't even know I had a MTB! It was fun to ride around and say "I built that jump, I painted those signs, I brush-hogged this whole loop." At the end, there was a bike demo days thing (I avoided the Madone!) and a display of park volunteering, with a pic of me on a MTB trail.

While I was thrashing around in the shed trying to get Loco ready for the big outting, looking for the shock pump, (yeah, you should have seen me struggle to remember how to connect it!!!) I found a brand new pair of XT skewers (those are going on my GT MTB with city tires- he has a major skewer problem!!!) and a brand new unworn pair of gel gloves! Must have been some detail I didn't like about them years ago, and they got put away and forgotten. They seem fine now!

Nanci

[DrBee]

That's great Nanci! I'm so happy for you that you rediscovered MTBing and can enjoy it even more now that you're stronger! Wahoo to you! And - how fun to find stuff in the process - almost like Christmas.

[fatbottomedgurl]

Cool, Nanci. I'm on my way to the other other side. I've put in 163 road miles in the last month on my mountain bike which had been collecting dust for the last 4 years. Put semi slicks on her. Looking forward to a road bike... some day. But Saturday I climbed a big road that always killed me before, and then was able to do 1/2 mile dirt trail over a ridge and dropped into Thousand Oaks- the next city over! That was cool to tell my husband I dropped into Thousand Oaks. Of course with a nice little carbon framed road bike I could throw her on my shoulder and hike-a-bike!

[LittleBlackDuck]

Nanci,

I just love reading your posts. Love how you love riding so much!! You have such passion, it's so great to see . You inspire a lot of people, me included .

LBD

[allabouteva]

Nanci,

I just love reading your posts. Love how you love riding so much!! You have such passion, it's so great to see . You inspire a lot of people, me included .

LBD

Ditto LBD, Nanci I reckon if you did a poll with TE gals, you'll find enough to start your own fan club. ..... (picking myself off the floor after bowing) We're not worthy!!!

People at work don't believe me when I tell them about you, so trust me what you do is really incredible.