Bicycling Duo

Since I was in Owatonna today, I started my day off with the OBC Saturday morning Coffee Grind.  The thing with the Coffee Grind is that I really don't like biking on an empty stomach, and I don't like getting up early enough on a Saturday to eat breakfast with enough time to digest it before the ride.  Generally, this leads to an iffy sort of ride, wherein my freshly eaten breakfast attempts to make its way through my digestive system whilst the rest of me is struggling to keep up with the group.   I think I made a good try at it this week, though having spent myself on intervals the previous day didn't really help.   All in all a fairly solid ride for a morning ride, but I am very grateful to Grant, who stayed back with me so I didn't get lost!

The afternoon was reserved for mountain biking.   Since last weekend's adventure in Decorah, I've been hoping to find some trails that are a mix of beginner friendly, but also challenging.   To that end, I met up with Ben in Rochester to check out Eastwood Park.   Eastwood has about 5 miles of single track that wind up and down the hillside.  Unlike Decorah, there are few drop-offs and the trail is predominately dirt (rather than rock).

We took on the easier trails first, which was a good starter course for me.   I am still having some trouble adjusting to the width of the handlebars, which I may need to shorten, so there were a couple times I hit a root wrong or nearly nailed a tree due to questionable handling of the bike.   We then moved over to the more difficult trails, which were good fun.   I definitively had to get off and walk more than a few times, though a lot of that was due to being in too high a gear for the hill I just turned onto.   I took a few of the obstacles and let go of the brakes once or twice on the descents -- progress.   I also had a few near crashes, including one that was almost a spectacular pratfall into some raspberry bushes courtesy of a errant tree branch.  In short, a fantastic afternoon.

This is what happens when you walk a lot. 

Workout(s):  23 miles / 16.3 mph average

                    I'll add the mountain biking once I have my Garmin data uploaded.
                    -- I lied...left the Garmin on for the trip back from Rochester, so the data is all hosed.