I don't even have a title for these weeks now.
Monday - nothing
Rested a sore IT band after lots of pain at Salem Lake on Sunday. Foam rolled.
Tuesday - #10kTuesday with @pintandpie
#doitforthehashtag
#10kTuesday
Tried out running in my older shoes for #10kTuesday with the Pint & Pie to see if the IT band would be happier, and lo & behold, it was. Not 100% but certainly no where near the pain I'd had 2 days prior. I hate to think my pretty new shoes are causing all of my pain, so I'm not going to get rid of them just yet, but it's certainly concerning that the first time I run in different shoes (other than my new ones) I have significantly less pain. We'll see.
Regardless, I did another 10kTuesday with D in the stroller - love my weekly runs with him. :)
Wednesday - bike
Nice ride with the ladies through USC Upstate - 10.5 miles in the lovely spring weather!
Thursday - nothing
Busy work week - rest.
Friday - nothing
Took a half day from work to get ready to leave for the weekend.
Saturday & Sunday - Women's Mountain Bike Clinic
Over the weekend I attended a Women's Mountain Bike Clinic at Mulberry Gap in Ellijay, GA (north GA mountains). The clinic was lead by Sue Haywood, a retired pro mountain bike racer, with assistance from Meredith Erlewine and Shanna Powell.
Sue Haywood
The Mulberry Gap retreat center was awesome - multiple small cabins and campsites with bath houses and a main lodge where family-style meals are cooked and served every day. It was simply amazing. I was in a shared cabin with 4 other ladies - reminded me of summer camp. :)
Saturday - Skills Practice
We spent most of the day on Saturday practicing basic mountain bike skills. First practiced on flat ground doing front & back wheel lifts, level lifts (i.e. a "jump"), rock-dodge maneuvers, and other bike-handling skills. After lunch we moved over to the skills park to practice getting up and over boxes or other obstacles, worked on managing "drops" and "skinnies", and other fun things. We worked up to a 13" drop!
We also headed out on the short trail that looped around the retreat site to practice certain sections. One was a tough steep switchback followed immediately by a wood ramp & drop-off... I went over the bars on the first attempt but went back a second time and got through it! :) I was really happy about that.
Sunday - Trail Ride
After breakfast we headed out for a group trail ride. It was estimated to take ~3 hours for us to complete, but that was a bit too optimistic. We got shuttled most of the way to the trail head, but still had a 2-mile climb on gravel roads to kick things off. Halfway up was a nice waterfall, and at the top was a beautiful overlook of the mountains.
First trail was Bear Creek - a short bit of single track with some really hard switch-backs (I walked them - MOST of us walked them). The group stopped there for about an hour to "session" on the switchbacks. Some were able to finally clear them, which is awesome - these girls have guts. A small group of us wanted to go on ahead along the trail (knowing we weren't up for the switchback practice), so we headed out with Shanna as our guide. After the remainder of Bear Creek, with lots of great descents on single- and double-track, a good number of water crossings, we came to the start of Pinhoti 1 trail. This kicked off with a killer single-track climb, but then we were rewarded with an awesome descent. End of P1, had some gravel connector roads, then started off Pinhoti 2. A little bit of climbing to start P2, but not nearly as bad as what we'd already done. The rest was downhill until we got to the gravel road back to camp.
Total of 15.5 miles and 2,600 feet of climbing. Whew!
Definitely an amazing weekend and I can't wait to get back on my mountain bike! :)
Rested a sore IT band after lots of pain at Salem Lake on Sunday. Foam rolled.
Tuesday - #10kTuesday with @pintandpie
#doitforthehashtag
#10kTuesday
Tried out running in my older shoes for #10kTuesday with the Pint & Pie to see if the IT band would be happier, and lo & behold, it was. Not 100% but certainly no where near the pain I'd had 2 days prior. I hate to think my pretty new shoes are causing all of my pain, so I'm not going to get rid of them just yet, but it's certainly concerning that the first time I run in different shoes (other than my new ones) I have significantly less pain. We'll see.
Regardless, I did another 10kTuesday with D in the stroller - love my weekly runs with him. :)
Wednesday - bike
Nice ride with the ladies through USC Upstate - 10.5 miles in the lovely spring weather!
Thursday - nothing
Busy work week - rest.
Friday - nothing
Took a half day from work to get ready to leave for the weekend.
Saturday & Sunday - Women's Mountain Bike Clinic
Over the weekend I attended a Women's Mountain Bike Clinic at Mulberry Gap in Ellijay, GA (north GA mountains). The clinic was lead by Sue Haywood, a retired pro mountain bike racer, with assistance from Meredith Erlewine and Shanna Powell.
Sue Haywood
The Mulberry Gap retreat center was awesome - multiple small cabins and campsites with bath houses and a main lodge where family-style meals are cooked and served every day. It was simply amazing. I was in a shared cabin with 4 other ladies - reminded me of summer camp. :)
Saturday - Skills Practice
We spent most of the day on Saturday practicing basic mountain bike skills. First practiced on flat ground doing front & back wheel lifts, level lifts (i.e. a "jump"), rock-dodge maneuvers, and other bike-handling skills. After lunch we moved over to the skills park to practice getting up and over boxes or other obstacles, worked on managing "drops" and "skinnies", and other fun things. We worked up to a 13" drop!
We also headed out on the short trail that looped around the retreat site to practice certain sections. One was a tough steep switchback followed immediately by a wood ramp & drop-off... I went over the bars on the first attempt but went back a second time and got through it! :) I was really happy about that.
Sunday - Trail Ride
After breakfast we headed out for a group trail ride. It was estimated to take ~3 hours for us to complete, but that was a bit too optimistic. We got shuttled most of the way to the trail head, but still had a 2-mile climb on gravel roads to kick things off. Halfway up was a nice waterfall, and at the top was a beautiful overlook of the mountains.
First trail was Bear Creek - a short bit of single track with some really hard switch-backs (I walked them - MOST of us walked them). The group stopped there for about an hour to "session" on the switchbacks. Some were able to finally clear them, which is awesome - these girls have guts. A small group of us wanted to go on ahead along the trail (knowing we weren't up for the switchback practice), so we headed out with Shanna as our guide. After the remainder of Bear Creek, with lots of great descents on single- and double-track, a good number of water crossings, we came to the start of Pinhoti 1 trail. This kicked off with a killer single-track climb, but then we were rewarded with an awesome descent. End of P1, had some gravel connector roads, then started off Pinhoti 2. A little bit of climbing to start P2, but not nearly as bad as what we'd already done. The rest was downhill until we got to the gravel road back to camp.
Total of 15.5 miles and 2,600 feet of climbing. Whew!
Definitely an amazing weekend and I can't wait to get back on my mountain bike! :)