MTB (MTB O) 2:23:48 [3] 38.0 km (3:47 / km)
ahr:150 max:174 shoes: Iron Horse Bootleg 3.0
First ride on the new bike and first effort at MTBo today. In hindsight I might have been better off going for a normal MTB ride first up to get used to the new bike. The new shifters will take a bit of getting used to and I constantly kept going up gears on the up hills.
Really enjoyed the ride and didn't really push particularly hard but tried hard to keep contact with the map instead. Not being able to keep my thumb on the map definitely made things tricky.
Got 1and 2 ok. Missed a turn heading to 3 then couldn't find the track to 4. Hit the catching feature like everyone else then backtracked but couldn't find the track entrance. Entered what may have been a track and bashed my way to the watercourse. Then saw nothing but thick bush and wasn't sure on the rules for leaving tracks so turned back to the track and took the long way round to the west. Lost a lot of time on this leg but I was really just trying to make sure I always knew where I was.
Rode most of the way to 5 with Jen before something happened and I was suddenly on the ground. Got up and though 'Oh no I have stuffed the bike after 1 day' when I couldn't get the chain to move freely then realised the rear wheel had dropped out. Put it back in, not very well mind you. Then checked the front one and it too was loose. I obviously need to master the new skewers as I guess I didn't tighten them well when I changed the tyres yesterday.
Rode hard for the only time really between 8 and 9 then thought the leg to 10 looked tricky so deliberately slowed but still stuffed it up by making a parallel error on Dale road. Eventually got some help from Jen when she found me standing at an intersection so rode into 10 with her again. From there got in slowly but correctly.
Found myself constantly checking myself which was frustrating. For instance although I knew I just had to turn right at the next fork I would keep looking at the map and slowing to do so. My MTB skills are really poor but that is what you get from never doing any real MTBing. Will aim to correct this over winter. Also need to get a proper map board as I was holding mine on from about halfway.
Of concern is that my Garmin tells me I had 1hour 57 mins of moving time so thats nearly 27 minutes not moving! Even with the fall and stopping to check the map I don't know where all that time went.
Will look forward to more of these.
MTB 8:15 [3] 1.34 km (6:09 / km)
shoes: Iron Horse Bootleg 3.0
A bit of a warm up / get used to the new bike session before the MTB O.