Maggie got a sweet new women's MTB and we're both so excited to get out and ride!
We made it to Castlewood last weekend and having spent the last year only riding a few times she rode very well. There was one climb on grotpeter that when we were approaching I suggested that she shift down to her lowest gear. I climbed ahead of her then waited at the top. When she came up she said that she made it without dabbing once....then asked if she should have been in her little ring (meaning she climbed a pretty technical and steep hill in her middle ring!).
It definitely got me thinking about training for riding and how incredibly effective good cross training can be. Maggie has been seeing a trainer at the gym for the last 6 months 2-3x per week and he has her doing all kinds of crazy functional fitness stuff (squats, lunges, pull-ups, push-ups etc). Other than that, she had been on a bike maybe 5-6 times since she first got pregnant a year and a half ago!
Last summer when I had surgery and was laid up for most of July, I couldn't ride a bike for a while so I did some really intense trail running and hit the gym for some pretty hard-ass workouts. When cyclocross season came around I had been on my bike 2x in September (except for some very short commuting), not at all in August, and a few times in July. I ended up having a fantastic season and felt super fit.
This season, I'm doing a bunch more mountain biking including some racing throughout the summer and into september. I'm also trying to maintain some gym time 2-6 days per week depending on how much riding I can fit into my schedule.
Maggie is also planning on trying a few mountain bike races...and perhaps she'll try a few cyclocross races on her mtn bike.
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