The Mt. Biking Incident

Ok so I went on my very first mt. biking ride Saturday. Here's what I learned from the experience; 1) Mt. Biking is hard, 2) Planning a mt. bike ride is kinda important, 3) my heart can beat about 180 bpm for about a half hour without exploding, 4) while I'm better than I was 2 months ago, I'm not in shape at all.

As I think I said before, I volunteered to ride along with a friend who is training for a marathon, my job is to be there for support, YEAH I KNOW AINT I A SWEET GUY. We decided to do the 15 miles at Blue Marsh thinking that running the trails there would be cooler and less monotonous than a road run. Sounded like a plan, how hard could it be right? Well for starters neither of us had been on any of the trails there. I picked up a trail map online but that proved to be useless. After driving back and forth looking for some hidden road that was on my map we ended up parking at the Church Rd parking spot. Then we walked around aimlessly looking for the trail opening. We had to look pretty silly, but then we saw another guy getting a bike out so she scurried over to him and he directed us to "the best route" for our intended use. IF I EVER SEE THIS GUY AGAIN I WILL KICK HIM IN THE NUTS! Unless he misunderstood "Where does the trail open?" to mean "How can I get my big friend back there killed?" he failed to help. I think he was just mad becauseI had a cute girl hanging out with me and he was alone. So we follow his directions, thank him, and head in to the trail.

Let me lay this out, I ride every other day at the gym for 40 minutes (about 15 miles) at a pretty high intensity. But I havent rode a bike since college, and the bike I had wasnt even mine. I figured keeping up with someone running 15 miles should be pretty easy. Right off the bat I was struggling getting the hang of the gears as we jumped into the trail. The trail that IMMEDIATELY went uphill (be prepared "going up" is a theme of this trip) , I think I'm downshifting but no I'm not. So I get about ten yards in and I'm already jumping off the bike to push but it levels off pretty quick and I start to get the shifting straight. All is good, her pace isn't like she's just running a mile so it's pretty easy to follow. I'm actually enjoying myself although I find it a little more treacherous than I expected, and the thought "I shouldnt be doing this without health insurance" pops into my head. Fortunately, I didn't have to dwell on that thought long because about 3 or 4 miles into our trip I find hell in Berks county. Hell is this ludicrous hill that went straight up and didnt end until we were above the clouds. Okay I exaggerate. We cross this wooden bridge and suddenly the trail goes up. And by up I mean 45 degrees up! I know it's push time so I hop off. It looks like the trail bends right about 100 yds ahead and I assume that it levels off after the bend. BOY WAS I WRONG. I'm already panting from the first 100 yd pushfest when I get to the turn and see that it continues another 100 yds or so UP then bends again. This time I was more hopeful than confident that it would level off. NOPE another bend another 100 yards up. By this time I am dropping sweat in puddles, the heart is beating so fast I can't even count fast enough to try to get a heart rate. I rest and wonder how I am still alive and how would they even get me out of here if I did die at this spot. Then I press on and finally get to top of MT. Everest. Completely exhausted by now I get back on the bike and start sliding downhill. I mean sliding! Lots of loose rock and steep decline plus a 295 pound man (oh yeah by this time I had dropped at least 4 pounds) on a bike equals sliding. I decide its a little to scary for my tired body to handle, so I hop off and push downhill. Now at this point we may be about 5 miles in and I probably pushed the bike 2 miles. I was starting to think that maybe I should have just ran with her. I had told her a while back just to keep on running and that I would catch up. Well I did catch up, but it was more because she was running back towards me, lol. We finally come out of the woods and it flattens off again. Once again I start to feel better, the heart is down to normal cardio activity level. We're chatting, I don't know if I was forming coherent sentences or not, but I'm actually beginning to enjoy myself when we pop back out onto the road. We complete the loop, HOORAY. Then I am informed that we are halfway done. I seriously thought that we had to be well beyond 10 miles at this point. I started to cry. NO I DIDN'T, I cant believe you thought I cried.

I head back to the car for more water and away we go. Now I had NO intentions of repeating that loop so I said why don't we try the road for a bit. She agrees or at least she conceded to my request and we go. Of course we run right into a hill that doesn't stop. At his point I am beginning to think that I am at the bottom of a huge pit cuz everywhere I went was going up. After a few rolling hills the road turns out to be a dead end so we turn back and enter trail on the opposite side of the road from the psycho loop. We go a bit on this trail and it splits, one way goes downhill and the other uphill (surprisingly). Bet ya can guess which way I voted. Well we go the downhill way but to my chagrin it leads to the lake so we must turn around. At this point I am pretty much spent. I know we are heading to the incline that I passed on five minutes earlier and every part of me said you gotta stop. I felt really bad cuz I didnt want to quit on her but I had nothing left to give. I was already feeling bad cuz I felt like I was an anchor on her training run. I'm no runner and have no idea how one trains for a marathon. She was saying that its alright but I thought she was saying that to make me feel better. SO I confessed that I was done, told her to run as far out and back as she had to and that I would wait right there. Once she took off I laid on the wet leaves of the trail and just rested. I was so tired I couldn't shoo away the insects that were beginning to swarm me. Honestly I have no idea how long she was gone, and I'm surprised that I didnt fall asleep, I was that tired. She returned and we made our way back to the car. When I got home I took a LONG shower. I fell asleep around 4pm woke up long enough to eat and realize that I was way to tired to be awake. The next thing I saw was 10am Sunday.

I woke up the next day not sore, surprisingly. I even went to the gym that afternoon and lifted. How ever bad that experience was I'd do it again. I've pretty much sold myself on making that loop another of my goals. Been looking at buying a mt bike now because me and Blue Marsh are gonna tangle again. I may have to push up HELL again but I'm gonna win. Maybe not next time but I will sometime.

So to summarize. You should probably talk your marathon training friends to run on flatter tracks than Blue Marsh if its your first time mt biking. Never take trail advice from a jealous single mtbiker. If you do things with people you enjoy, no matter how miserable those things get, you'll still enjoy the day. Woodland insects bite, Hard. The bigger the challenge the greater the reward.