Sunday, 5 pm, lawn is mowed, beer is cracked

I did not get that much of a workout yesterday at my half-race, but it was something. Mountain biking is a very different workout than on the road or bikepath. It is alot more upper body work and you use your legs in different ways, unlike the road which is pretty constant except for climbing.

I got an early morning phone call to go riding at Longview Lake, on the paved trails there. I'll take any opportunity to exercise outside rather than the gym so I went. Pretty relaxed ride, 14 miles, slow pace (avg 12 mph, max 18 mph), mostly flat.

As we drove up, a couple girls on their bikes came up to the car asking if that was the end of the trail. My friend who had ridden there previously said it was but said there was a section they might have missed and if they wanted to ride with us, they could. They decided to go on but first they went over to some jungle-gym equipment by the parking lot. This one girl did 3-4 pullups! I was impressed.

When our other riding partner arrived, I said 'This chick did pullups.' She told me that I could do that and I said I was going to try but I was waiting for them to leave so I didn't look too stupid. So we went over and tried and, lo and behold, I could do a couple. Not very well and I really struggled to pull up all the way from completely straight arms, but still more than I thought I could do. Motivation to get my strength training done, for sure.