Shawnee State Forest Park...A first long ride on MTB for Marc

Spring is finally here, along with rainy days and MTB trails closed. As the Mohican 100miles MTB Race is getting closed, Marc and I really need to spent time on the mountain-bike and to climb more hills.To get some miles and a long ride on MTB, we decided to try the gravel and forest roads at the Shawnee State Forest Park. 

After a 2hr drive, we started from the conference center’s parking lot to ride the 70k loop of the 2014 Ridgetop Ramble (Swallow Bicycle Works).

A  first fast downhill on road, we rode on the forest roads, climbing  some short but steep hills, enjoying some fast flat or downhill sections and bunch of rollers. 

The trails are mostly dry and we could finally feel the warm spring sun and see the nature blooming.

Legs are a bit sore from a tough week of training, but we are just happy riding in a nice area, exploring new paths and discovering some unknown landscapes.

Almost a clean ride, but the last downhill on a  forest road was waiting for us all muddy and dirty…just 2k and we are covered by a fresh mud. 

We finished the ride at a good pace and we got dry in no time under the hot sunshine of the day. Last climb on road to find the car and it's time to drive back to Cincy just realizing that it was the first long MTB ride for super Marc.

68k – 1200m D+ - 3h30, a good and fun ride

Biowheels Group Ride….Don’t miss the train!!!

Finally, spring is showing up, the birds tweet, the temperatures are getting warmer and it’s raining a lot….so the trails are muddy, which means no MTB, which mean I’m sometimes grumpy but that another story!!!

We took advantage of a beautiful sunny day to fit the 1h40min ride schedule in our training plan with the group ride from Mitch’s Bike Shop “Biowheels”. The shop is located on Madeira (check the link on the right) and it’s a great place with lot of good gears, bikes and team and a great bike fitting system “Retul” (I will use it soon after changing stuffs on the TT and MTB!!!). 

Every Monday evening, Wednesday evening and Saturday morning, Mitch has a group ride starting from his shop with a well thought A and B group system. Basically, we start all together and the riders who get dropped during the ride create a B group.  

David, Marc and I were fully motivated by the sunshine of the day for a nice week day ride...but I was finally the only one to make it, as David got stuck at work and Marc in the traffic because of a car crash on the Highway…Don’t take the highway at 5pm in Cincy…just don’t do it!!! Trust me, it’s a perfect picture of “the Murphy’s law”… :P

6:15pm the ride begun, and we got pretty quickly in line taking relay to get a fast pace. It’s early in the season as the main race is in October (aka IM Barcelona…Back to Europe!!!). It’s been a while I have ridden in an organized big group and I wondered during the first 10 minutes if I was in shape for that…

As I got warmed up, and it takes more and more time “Diesel style”, everything got back naturally, drafting, taking the relay and everything was so enjoyable with a great weather and a nice group of riders. 

The climbs went not too bad, but I could feel that long winter and lot of work has to be done to get my climbing speed back…hopefully we will soon go for long MTB rides, that always helps!!!

We re-grouped after the last climb and rode back to the shop just before night..which made me realized that I still haven’t got a new rear light. 

Too late for a transition run, and a bit lazy too (the shoes were in the trunk and the stayed there). I also forgot to drop my rear wheel with a loose spoke to the shop…next time. That's the perfect kind of short ride of the training plan.

Thanks Mitch and the group for this nice ride, see you next week!!!

55.4km - 1h39min - Avg:33.6km/h - A good dose of fun.