January 14, 2013

Mountain Biking Sunday - a trip to Glyncorrwg and an abandonment of W2

Sunday was beautiful!  The sun came out and it stopped raining and I managed to get my bike in the car by 8:30am for a trip to one of the most beautiful parts of South Wales - Afan Argoed!  I was trying to complete the (overly) ambitious Wall 2 - 27 miles of black grade trail with 3,000 feet of climbing and  "two of the most demanding descents in the UK" according to the website.

To be honest, if I had looked at the website before I started I probably wouldn't have tried.

But I did it!  Well I did some of it.  I did half of it. But this doesn't really matter - I'll only do better next time!  The important bit was this:


The view was amazing!  Many people call the South Wales Valleys "Gods Country" and though that's often mocked by Cardiff people, they have a point.  It's beautiful!

My Strava was less impressive - I'm getting quicker downhill, but my climbing and stamina are crap.  I also forget that unlike road biking, going downhill on a mountain bike takes almost as much effort as going up hill. 

The only rest was when I took a gently sloped fire road down a hill for a while.  This was counteracted by realizing I missed a turn and grinding it back up the hill for a while.  


Next time I'll probably just do Whites Level - It's about 15 miles and will probably tire me out enough.  Looking forward to the next nice weekend!
PS - I'm sorry about the stupid shirt that I'm wearing.  I once went on a mission to get a shirt from every state.  I had a few, but the only one left is the above "Idaho? No, Udaho" shirt.  Embarassing!

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