Back to Reality

Seeing that I'm signed up for VT50, I figured I'd better dedicate more of my riding time to mountain biking. I ended up doing 3 (2 of the hot variety) laps of the Winsted Woods course last Tuesday. A mere half mile from my house, it's a good training ground to work on my tech skills. It was WAY drier than my last venture up there so the trails were nice and tacky and it was fairly enjoyable.


Don't get me wrong, like most anyone else, I love being in the woods. However, I have one major beef with mountain biking. Lack of efficiency. The terrain coupled with the heavy bike (~27 lbs) make for some super slow going at times. I find this frustrating. Maybe it's the fact that 91.853% (actual figure, at least as % of miles ridden) of my riding this year has been of the ON road variety. I think I've been riding long enough now to realize what I'm NOT particularly good at (relative to myself anyway) and that's mountain biking. I find it absolutely thrashes my legs. It seems to be very similar physiologically to cyclocross. Perhaps that's why alot of the super strong cyclocrossers mountain bike and vice versa. Full gas, recover, full gas, recover. Over and over again. I find I can recover from the efforts alright but the problem is that my full gas is really more like 3/4 gas. I liken it to me driving a 1981 Diesel Volkswagon (sorry Doug, had to steal your year) through the woods chasing 300 horsepower turbo rally cars. Great. This is at least how I felt the other day trying to keep my buddy Brian in sight. I do take solace in knowing that he is a former Root 66 series Expert champ. And to think I was feeling pretty good about myself after 6 Gaps.


I wonder how much of my sub-par "mountain bike physiology" is a product of my genetics and how much is a product of "training". Mountain biking is very snappy. Road riding is more or less a steady continuous effort. Some days I feel like I can go ride at 18 mph for 10 hours. Take me out on a spirited 2 hour romp in the woods and I'm BLOWN. It's interesting because through the years I've put my legs through myriad activities. I played basketball all through my youth. To make up for my lack of height I was very quick and had a 36" standing vertical. This would lead me to believe that I have a fairly high percentage of fast twitch fibers in my legs. Also, when I used to run, I was decently fast in the 40 yd. dash at ~4.7 seconds though I did have the endurance to run a sub-15:30 5K. I really don't know. Maybe I just trained the shit out of my legs and they just became well-adapted for the functions I put them through. This leads me to believe that while we do have a genetic ceiling in regards to muscle fiber types, there seems to be a large percentage of fibers that are highly trainable. Or maybe I have a high percentage of highly trainable fibers. Ah, forget it.

As the great CB2 once told me while we were slogging through a half foot of crusty snow at 5mph, mountain biking and road biking both complement each other. Each addresses weaknesses inherent in there respective realms. Mountain biking without question has improved my bike handling and overall balance. Not to mention, my leg strength has also benefitted a great deal. I'm glad I got a mountain bike though some very twisted folks out there would probably prefer I got one without supsension AND gears. I do love being out in the woods and getting my ass handed me to boot. Everyone needs a good whooping now and then. It keeps the ego in check.