… cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee … from Genesis 3:17 & 18
I thought of this passage from the Bible as I was working on the mountain bike trail yesterday afternoon. The road ride went by the wayside when my boys asked me if they could give the trail a try. We grabbed our bikes and some tools. Before long we were chopping our way through the briars and vines.
It is amazing to see the damage those briars do to the trees. I would cut off one of the briar vines at the root and then start pulling at it. You could see where the vine went up into the trees to turn into a jumbled mass of dead limbs and briars.
More often than not when I pulled I ended up pulling the tree down! I’m not sure if this is the case, but it appeared that the vines sucked the life out of the trees and they were dead. Thankfully, after pulling on the vines and cutting the briars away, I didn’t have to cut down many saplings to make the path.
After several hours of labor, we guys started riding (Thing Three spent most of his time pushing his bike over the mounds of dirt). It was fun and quite technical in some places. However, I did end up the day somewhat disappointed.
All of that work, but when we did a timed run of the route out and back the time was underwhelming! My 8 year-old, who really took to the trail, finished in 2 minutes. I finished riding the trail in 1:38. Turns out it isn’t nearly as long as it seemed when I was clearing it!
Today I was back on the road bike heading out to the nearby town of Whiteville. The goal for the day was to put in two hours focusing on my form — cadence, power, and distance weren’t a concern. I figured I could make it to Whiteville in an hour and then turn around for the second.
I did it too. However, I had a slight tailwind all the way there. I also rode around a bit in the town. When I turned around to come back, I had the wind in my face. I ended up with about 2.5 hours in the saddle.
Well, I hope this riding serves me well come race season. It was pretty lonely out there. I even had someone throw an full and open soda can at my front wheel. I’m sure it will be worth it…
One thing I have learned is that I can ride pretty strong for about two hours. Once I pass the two hour threshold, I start feeling it. It doesn’t seem to matter whether I ride hard or easy, two hours is the magic distance. I guess that is why you have to train with longer distances. You can move that magic distance out a bit.
More mountain bike trail work tomorrow! We’re going to add a switchback to make the trail more of a loop. That way the kids won’t get upset with each other blocking the way.
