I went on my second ever mountain bike ride yesterday. My first ever being a 3 mile loop I did a couple weeks ago after getting my new bike. If you remember my foot hurt so bad the next day I could barely walk on it. I got some tips and figured it was due to my very narrow pedals. I also had clip-in shoes. I had some new wider pedals put on with an option for clip or no clip. I wore my running shoes last night for extra cushion and arch support. I don’t need all the extra power that a clipped-in shoe provides at this point. So it worked well for me.
My ride was a 14 mile loop on the Tijeras Creek Trail and through O’Neill Regional park. All right from the comfort of my front door! It wasn’t going to be hard loop but not without it’s challenges. I had about 800 feet of climbing over the 14 miles. There were some hike-a-bike stream crossings. Some ride across crossings, some very rocky and bumpy areas, some fun downhills, etc. I felt it for sure. I thought I would be feeling it today but much to my chagrin I feel pretty good. More importantly my foot feels good. The new pedals and different shoes helped I think. I’d also like to think my foot is slowly but surely healing.
It was fun to bike this loop I have run so many times. I haven’t done a 14 mile run since December. Yikes. So have not seen all these trails. They smoothed out and widened a few sections near the main entrance to O’Neill park.
On the 16th I get to really but my brand new biking skills to the test. We have a 22 mile run planned (that I scheduled). I didn’t want to miss it so I’m going to bike it. LOTS of uphill the first 10 miles. I’m sure I’ll be walking a lot of that with my bike. I don’t have the biking legs yet to do all that climbing. The ride down should be fun. It’s basically 12 miles of non-stop downhill. The trail is pretty smooth but I’m sure I’ll be feeling it one way or another.
Miki is coming tomorrow. Yay! I think I’ll take her on a hike/run of Holy Jim Trail Saturday morning. It’s one of my favorites.
Happy Running & Dirty Feet,
Jessica
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