Snow is Cold

Went mountain biking with Al on Sunday, he’s bought a 2003 ex-top of the range Norco downhill bike – it’s badass – so we had to go try it out. His purchase also means I can ride his old GT LTS 2000 instead of my oldddskool x-country bike. Bonus.

After some maintenance works on said old bike we headed up to Pope’s wood, near Painswick beacon, for a couple of downhill runs. The ride up seriously nearly killed me – I’ve never ridden UP that hill before cuz it’s crazy steep and long, plus downhill bikes are heavy! When we stopped the first time I thought I was gonna puke from the exertion – turns out I’m even more unfit than I suspected. Damn :p

On reaching the top, I set off and stacked it within 2 seconds. Quite impressive, I think you’ll agree. Locked up the front brake in the wet cuz I was scared of going too fast and the front slid out, so did the second half of the first drop on buttcheeks. Respect. Al blitzed off and I did the rest of the downhill run like a girl :p hahaha.

We hiked it back up again, despite the light failing on us, and went for a second run. Once again I was left trailing in the dust, albeit not quite so severely. Unfortunately I bottled the same section twice – a nasty droppy rooty bit – so an outburst of cursing ensued. Still, we decided to call it a day after that due to the fact that Al mentioned broken bones. Didn’t wanna tempt fate ;)

The run back down the road was pretty fast and helped to remove all the mud from the tyres, instead depositing it on our clothes and skin. Whole thing was a good buzz though, I definitely enjoyed it and the fact that we were exercising instead of sitting around getting fatter just made it all the more worthwhile!