A Century and MTB

Saturday I attempted to ride up to St. Cloud and back. The route that I posted below led me to a dead end, this after confirming with the person who posted the map on Map My Ride was a good route. I rode from Plymouth up to St. Michael to Monticello to Becker. According to my directions I needed to take Liberty Ln to 125th street. I found out Liberty Ln takes you to the door step of the Power Plant. Obviously with the big gate and no other roads around I was stuck. The only other way around would be to go on Highway 10 for a few miles to get around the plant. Making it to St. Cloud wasn’t worth the risk—heck, I don’t even like driving on Highway 10 in a SUV. I’ve heard several stories about drivers who seeming to think Highway 10 is made for racing and road rage. I turned around and headed home.

Not concerned with avg speed and distance to my surprise my energy stayed consistent considering most of the ride was in headwinds and I didn’t have that much to eat (figuring I would raid my sisters fridge once I got to St. Cloud). I checked my miles and saw that I was only 10 miles away from a century. I took a detour home and got in 100. My recovery drink: a Fat Tire.

Sunday morning I met Bob, Matt, Bill, Kenny, Dave Hoglund, and one of my Hellion girls (Jackie, an elite mountain biker) for church—church of the two wheels—down at Murphy for MTB. It was nice to see all of the guys again in one location. We haven’t been all together since spin class in April. It was also nice to see Dave H in his element. Too bad it was only in the parking lot.

A huge thanks goes to Jackie for stayed back and teaching me MTB 101. A few things I learned: 95% of the your roadie skills need to be thrown out. Look through the turn. If you look at the tree—you will hit the tree. Get your cadence up to 90% at the bottom of the hill. Breaks—use them a lot! Use your hips and shoulders to turn. When going downhill—butt all the way back, the steeper the decent the more your butt will be back and off the seat. Due to my headset being loose (I guess that’s dangerous) MTB 201 will include jumping logs, throwing your weight, and more techniques. If I can master jumping logs without freaking out—I’ll be solid!

All in all I had a great time. I did much more then I would have done on my own—Jackie wouldn’t let me get away with walking the bike. I fell about 4 times, drew blood twice, and only hit one tree—which Jackie called a bone head move because I wasn’t paying attention. As for the next day, the muscles in my left shoulder hurt a bit, I’ve got this weird bump on my left forearm, and a few scrapes and bruises—not nearly as bad as last time.


Thanks Bill for the pictures. Note: the hand symbol is a Hellions thing we try to do on all pictures. Why is that guy, behind Jackie and I, sticking his tongue out at us? Must be a MTB thing.