I’m not sure why I have not blogged about this. Perhaps because I’ve been too busy doing it instead.
A month or two ago, Nate posted a link to this adventure race site and suggested that we enter a company team. Everyone was excruciatingly naive, or maybe drunk, and decided to sign on. Well, nobody has pulled out yet, so it seems we’re still on. And everyone is doing a bit to prepare.
I’ve always been interested in trying to get my mountain bike out on the local trails and maybe finally get some use out of it. I’ve been hideously out of shape since school, and that had deterred me. Until this.
On this past Thursday I went out on my second “training” ride with Nate and Jon. Anything at this point is training. Nate turned on the GPS tracker in his iPhone as we rode around, and came up with a pretty decent map of where we rode. That’s pretty cool!
And now I’ve gone crazy. I’ve only actually been out a couple of times, but it’s become clear that this is something I’d like to do more of if it doesn’t kill me. If I’m going to do more of it, I need to be better at it, because I have this weird thing where I don’t do stuff I’m not at least passing good at. So I’ve been getting some equipment that might help me improve, and I’ve been getting out and riding a bit more.
One of the things I did was grab a GPS and track my progress pedaling around the neighborhood. Hopefully with this tool, I’ll be able to see my improvement over time, and get a sense of accomplishment as my miles increase. Or something. I tell you, it’s crazy. I’m crazy.
In an attempt to get a kind of jump on the “adventure” aspect of this race, I got a topographic map of Marsh Creek, where the race is. Allegedly, this is the kind of map they give you at the onset of these races, with waypoints as circles marked out in the forest. I’m not sure how this race will work, but
Today, my new pedals arrived. I have been cruising around on flat pedals without clips. Apparently this is not what people do. At least not people who want to do this sort of thing. Why didn’t anyone tell me this before?
Anyway, I’m anxiously awaiting my new shoes, because my clipless pedals have arrived, but I can’t use them until I have shoes that I can attach to them. Until then, you can laugh at my awful first ride with my GPS.
