For the past week and a half Mesiel and I have been exploring the areas mountain biking trails. Early in this process we stuck to trails we were familiar with so that we could develop a criteria for rating them. Our first ride was through Chapin Forest. Chapin forest in part of the Cleveland Metroparks and offers a great mix of gravel paths, beginner trails, and for the more adventurous, very steep, technical off trail descents. Recently we have been exploring new trail networks. We are sticking to the most rugged trails possible in order to improve our technical skills and get the adrenaline pumping. One of the things we keep discussing is the importance of pulling out everything a park has to offer. There are often tiny back trails whose quality far surpasses that of the adjoining trails. This week we are planning on heading down south to Vulture’s Knob, one of the primer mountain biking areas in Ohio. By hitting this area early in our project we will have a standard by which we can measure all of our other trail systems. Here is some footage of vulture's knob. (unfortunately not us yet but I just wanted to show you what we will be getting into. The video effectively starts around 1:00)
Aside from reviewing trails we have been training for two events. The first event is a 100 mile mountain biking race in Loudonville Ohio with 11,000 ft of climbing. The second event is a triathlon midsummer. In order to prepare for these events we have a very high training volume. Since project has began I have ridden nearly 300 miles on my road bike but logged much more time on my mountain bike (although I am unsure of the exact mileage). We have also been running and to a very limited extent (because of our high biking volume) swimming. So far we have really been enjoying this project. Its flexibility is wonderful and it allows us to do what we love.
Wow, your project sounds awsome & is super hardcore... that's all I can say :)
ReplyDeleteDo you guys just check out bike trails around Cleveland, or all around Ohio too?
Sorry this is late, but I had troubles logging on. Anyway, Chapin was great. Like Nate said, we have been sticking to the more rugged trails to improve our technical skills. This is especially important to me personally, as I'm trying to work on my balance on the bike. I know that doesn't seem like it should be hard, but I just got clips on my bike (my feet are locked in and you have to jerk them sideways to get out), so if I start to fall because I hit a rock or root, and I try to lift my foot off the petal, it doesn't work. And I just fall. It hurts. Better balance in a situation like this would prevent it in the first place, because I would be able to better place my tire and avoid my bike stopping in the first place. Chapin was great for me for this, because although it required a good amount of technical skill to do in parts, those parts were often short, and therefore if I messed up, it was fairly easy to get going again. Nate has covered mostly everything else very well. There is one thing I wish to add, though. I believe it was next week that we were planning on going into Hubbub (our sponsor's bike shop) and going through their custom fitting process so that we can rate that for them. That will take several hours, and we would get to know if our mountain bikes actually fit us or not (not that we can do much about it if they don't, but it will be cool to experience the fitting process anyway). So that's it for this week.
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