Last weekend, we finally dusted our mountain bikes off and took them for a lap around Cannock Chase.
The last time I came back from a long break of not doing any mtb at all, the first couple of rides were terrible — I was really wobbly, slow and nervous as hell; so I wasn’t expecting this to be much fun, just the first step to get back into it.
Happily, I was wrong!
Yes, I was rather slow, but only on the uphills: my wonderful post-Lejog fitness has finally disappeared entirely, which was inevitable. The technical bits, however, were much more fun than I’d expected. I did the rocky bits, the stupid roots, and even the Werewolf Drop[1], which I definitely hadn’t planned on; that video shows what the drop really looks like — from the top it seems much steeper and more worrying.
Because Mr Satu had gear problems and I was wheezing up the hills, we decided to skip the Monkey Trail and just do one lap of the Dog; it was extremely muddy, so by the time we got back to the car park our bikes were crunching and we were freezing. But, I thoroughly enjoyed it!
The next step will be to get my stamina back. Mr S has joined a road riding club and has been going out with them almost every weekend; I don’t particularly like going out on Sundays, especially when it’s with a load of people I’ve never met before, so I haven’t been joining him. Yesterday, we went for my first road ride in ages — a variation of our usual 20 mile loop through the Clent Hills (the variation was to avoid the actual Clents with the long climb near the end); it was quite pleasant, though a bit chilly. My feet were frozen by the end, and I was tiiired. But that’s the first step done! A couple more shorter rides and I might be ready to go for a club ride if I can drag myself out of bed.
I’ll probably also try and get a set of pedals and a saddle for my proper road bike so I can start taking that out again. Dewey is in dire need of maintenance after a winter of commuting — there’s much squeaking from various parts.
So, I’m happy to report that I can still ride a bike, not just for commuting. I now have a couple of months to get ready for the Dyfi Forest Enduro, which I intend to finish this year!
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[1] Not my video, just googled it for illustration purposes.
