|
|
MechEngDropout
Member
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Jun 2003
Posts: 10474
Location: Off the grid
|
| Back to top
|
|
 Posted: 06/08/04 - 19:20 Post subject: My Heart Almost Exploded
I have never maxed out my heart rate as much and as frequently as I did today.
My friend Jose and I went out to a new mountain biking trail about 30 miles north of Baton Rouge. We're going to Colorado next week, mostly for mountain biking, so we figured we should get in shape and ride some different and more difficult trails. The trail we rode today is brand spankin' new, just built/cut a little over a month ago. There's been a lot of hype about it on the BRAMBA forums, with people billing it as the most difficult trail in Louisiana. They stressed that it was new, needed to harden up and get a lot of traffic to be in prime shape, but it was still a great ride. Everyone said they had some amazing climbs... gut twisting, snot blowing, make you want to die climbs. Most of them are impossible in their current state. It seems before every good climb there's a switchback, so you can't take any momentum into the climb. Drop into the granny chainring and get ready for a 2 minute climb going 1mph or less. Most of the experienced riders on the forum said they couldn't make it up them at all, and they did more walking than riding. Wow... were these people not lying at all. This trail is defintely tagged appropriately as "expert." In my opinion at least. I didn't find it to be a very technical trail, and the drops weren't suicidal by any means. Although the drops were usually followed by yet another switchback, and you had to ride the brakes down (which is not very safe nor good for the trail) just to keep from flying off into the woods. But back to the real challenge of the trail... the climbs. The steepness of these were just ridiculous. Many of them I couldn't get more than 20% up the hill before having to stop and "walk." Even walking up these hills at a decent pace was making my heart rate skyrocket. I'm all for gut wrenching climbs that you have to crawl up in the lowest gear... i'm all for the endurance aspect. But these climbs were impossible in every way for me. I can't imagine making it up more than 60% of these climbs within the next year. Aside from the ridiculous climbs, I found the trail was very pleasant. Great downhills, even though you couldn't get full speed because of the switch back directly in front of you. A few water crossings, which were nice, and some bridges. Really though, it wasn't a technical trail, but the uphills beat you unmercilessly until you had nothing left. For the few parts that it was relatively flat, or just minor undulations, it was a teriffic trail. For being such a young trail, it was very nice. The trail is definitely not intended for beginners, and I pity the high school kid who rides out to the park and tries his first time at mountain biking. There is no consolation for a beginner either. No bypasses for the uphills, no bypasses for log jumps. It's all singletrack and the only way to get out to the intermediate sections is to ride the beast. Just yikes... I'm in awe that there are some people out there that could make it up these hills. (Some guy on the BRAMBA forums said he made it up all but 2 after trying several times.) Maybe I'll go back... in a month or so when I get my pride back.
|
to you and Jose!!! Wow!
