The Joys of Eating Dirt

thekarens

I've only had my mountain bike for 3 weeks and I've only been on 2 trails. Today I discovered the joys of eating dirt. Apparently my stamina level is directly linked to my skill level. I was mostly doing fine on the way out (single track, 5 miles out and 5 back) and then when I had only about 2 miles left my engine ran out. Tumbled down a hill and then ran into I think 3 trees on tight turns.

On the flip side, mountain biking is so much fun! And, it's a fantastic workout. 10 miles on the trail felt a lot like 20 on the road.

mdstamand

I know what you mean. I'm primarily a road cyclist (of my 2200 miles this year almost 2000 of it is road). I took my mountain bike out over the weekend and did 30 miles of dirt trail hill climbing. I loved it and was reminded of why I bought the mtn. bike in the first place. Those 30 miles of dirt were easily as much work as 50 miles on the road bike. I did almost lose it on two different downhills as I over estimated my technical abilities on the dirt. I won't wait as long again to take my mtn. bike out again! Enjoy your new bike

Spatialized

You might have needed to eat (just not dirt). I get very stupid on the trail if I've been out for awhile and haven't eaten leading to things like deciding to leave my DNA all over the trail I'm on (crash with roadrash), running off the trail into brambles, missing the turn for home and ending up lost for a moment (or 30 minutes) and drinking crap beer post-ride...all bad decisions.

When I match distance trail vs road I feel so much more tired/beat up after the trail. But it is so much fun, I always come back with a huge grin on my face.

Spokez70

Mountain biking is just awesome- I probably spend 3:1 more time road biking but I really really love hitting the dirt track more than anything else. Love coming back scraped up, exhausted, lost then found my way back like playing in the woods as a kid again.