Yesterday morning, a friend of mine and I decided it would be a great chance to get some extra miles on the legs in preparation for a LONG mountain bike ride at the end of next month. Affectionately called the Drama Queen, it has over 6,500ft of climbing spread over 57 miles of north Georgia July heat and humidity. In know…sounds crazy doesn’t it? That’s becuase it is!

As you can probably imagine, I am not going to want to jump in head first with this one on no preparation, so it is time to start getting some serious mountain and road riding in. That is…of course…unless I want to be that shriveled up mess on that side of the trail that someone has to come rescue out of the mountains, and that does not sound like a great way to spend a weekend riding.

Anyways…yesterday we decided to head up to a local ride about an hour and a half early for some bonus miles. In typical 198 fashion, I hit the trail hard straight out of the gate and we put in a HOT warm-up 17 miles. When everyone showed up later that morning, I was feeling pretty confident (minus a couple of little mechanicals) as we started the second leg of the journey.

About 3/4 of the way through the second 17 mile leg, I really started to feel it. There were no cramps or drastic issues, just that “I can’t feel my legs and I can’t believe they are still spinning” situation. We got to the end of the ride (with a total of 35.1 miles…yes I added the .1…we earned it!) and I felt like I left absolutely everything on the trail. That is a good thing as I needed to stress my body a bit in preparation for the hurt fest later next month.

So I woke up this morning…and my legs feel like jelly! Yes, I left everything on the trail yesterday and now my legs are spun out. What I should really do is jump on the road bike today and spin the hurt out of them, but we will see how the day goes. When I prepare for these longer rides, there tends to be some uncomfortable days in the process…ah the things we do to enjoy our mountain bicycles…no wonder people think we are crazy!