This morning I woke up at a mind numbing 5am, to get ready for my 1st ever “proper” mountain bike ride out at Holla Trails here in Ballito. The ride was the first of my #Project2011 where I am aiming to try and change my lifestyle completely and lose some (read:lots) weight. Thanks to the guys over at Cannondale, I have a shiny new bike to ride, and today I really put it through it’s paces.
I met up at 6am with my mates Rich, Sean & my brother in law Roy. I warned them all ahead of time that there WOULD be walking, and even some moaning :) But suffice to say, I didn’t moan…walked yes. Rich planned a great route which involved some uphills(the walking) and some really cool single track riding along side a river, which meant some mud.
In total we did about 10.5KM in an hour and half. It may not sound that great, but the ride was pretty “technical” in terms of riding on the single track, which is a narrow path where you really need to concentrate and watch what you doing. I have to admit, I really enjoyed the single track riding which made for a lot of messy fun. The last stretch of the ride was pretty tough for me, as it was just “carry on cycling” riding, along a flat road, which meant pushing myself, which was good.
After the ride, I really felt good and expected myself to flake out, but didn’t feel that way at all. I think my healthy eating plan that I started this week has hugely contributed to this, and I can feel I had loads more energy. What a difference !!!
I used 2 apps on my iPhone to keep track of our progress. I will be doing a post soon on some of the apps I have been using to keep track of my health and fitness.
You can check out my Runkeeper activity log of the ride, which shows a map, speed, altitude etc. I really enjoy seeing after the fact where we have been and analysing the ride.
I know that in the next few months, I will be putting a lot more effort into the riding, and set myself a goal for the end of the year of doing an actual race, so expect a few more of these type of posts popping up soon :
