Mixing it up at Big Creek

Couldn't work up the motivation for driving up to North Georgia this weekend. Instead Amy and I rode from the house over to Big Creek. We went the back way through the subdivision north of the park and hopped on the Greenway.

We came to the entrance of the Freeride area, and I talked Amy into climbing up to the top of the hill. I got up to the top thinking I would be waiting for a little while for Amy to catch up but she was right there. I was impressed.

We rode back down to the bottom of the hill, and I talked Amy into doing a loop around the advanced and intermediate trails. It was nice change of pace from our normal loops on the beginner trails.

When we got back from our loop I had the bright idea for Amy to time me to see how long it would take to climb up to the top of the hill and come back down again. I have been doing a lot of super slow commuting but not really any high intensity stuff. Going full out up the hill was a shock to the system. I broke 4 minutes but just barely. I think I gave the freerider dudes some good laughs while they watched me run the gully at full speed. It was not pretty. :)

The second time I tried it I felt like my throat and lungs were literally burning. I have heard the expression before, but I think that was the first time I really understood what people were talking about. It sucked. I was less than 10 seconds slower the second time but it felt like minutes. I gotta do that again some time.