Something Borrowed, Something Blue

A Trek Fuel 70 set up much like the one I rode today.

Today I finished Week 11 of my 12-week training plan with 3 hours of saddle time.  That’s double the time my program told me to train, but early in the week bad weather kept me off the bike and I felt like I should make up for time lost.  I spent the first hour on a borrowed mountain bike at Glacial Blue Hills.  It was my first real-world experience on a full-suspension bike—a Trek Fuel 70, nice but a little too small for me—and  I would have liked to try a 29er today to get a head-to-head comparison.

I still haven’t decided which bike is right for me and I need to choose soon.  I had thought about making my mountain biking debut at Iola on May 1 but now I’m sure I won’t.  WEMS looks like a better fit for me than WORS, so really I’m trying to be ready for Stump Farm on May 14.  That’s doable, but I’ll need good weather and a fair amount of practice in the meantime.  Trails at New Fane and Greenbush remain closed by the DNR.  Glacial Blue Hills is open but it’s a damned hard venue for a newbie to build confidence.

My head just wasn’t in the right place all weekend.  I didn’t feel particularly strong on Saturday’s season-opening Washington County Bicycle Club ride and today I had to force myself to go back out for the last 2 hours following my mountain biking experiment.  Mostly I blame the weather.  It’s hard to get fired up when every day is chilly and overcast.  And the coming week looks wet.  That’s bad news for the mountain bike trails and for my motivation.  I don’t want to go back to the indoor bike trainer.