{"id":975,"date":"2009-07-12T23:11:40","date_gmt":"2009-07-12T15:11:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2009\/07\/12\/la-mesa-nature-reserve-take-2\/"},"modified":"2017-02-11T08:15:34","modified_gmt":"2017-02-11T08:15:34","slug":"la-mesa-nature-reserve-take-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2009\/07\/12\/la-mesa-nature-reserve-take-2","title":{"rendered":"La Mesa Nature Reserve Take 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today was supposed to be another fun big-group newbie ride, but because of the rains it was cancelled&#8230; but there were some of us who still &#8220;pushed&#8221; through despite the risks of a much wetter\/muddier trail. It was worth it!<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2650\/3712331631_5efc532fe6_o.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"You may click on the image for more details\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2650\/3712331631_d4d7421196_m.jpg\" class=\"wb\"><\/a><em>More photos <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nargalzius.com\/gallery\/set\/72157621333965216\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a><\/em><\/div>\n<p>I went with Bruno, Alan and AJ. I ended up being the newbie there as the former two already compete&#8230; and AJ while a &#8220;newbie&#8221; biker as well, seemed to have this monstrous endurance!<!--more--><!-- \/\/ --><\/p>\n<h2>What&#8217;s Old is New Again<\/h2>\n<p>We did the exact same path we did last time, but deviated at the end by extending a bit to a different area <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_975_1('footnote_plugin_reference_975_1_1');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_975_1('footnote_plugin_reference_975_1_1');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_975_1_1\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">1 <\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_975_1_1\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">We reached the perimeter walls of the Reserve<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_975_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_975_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script> before heading back.<\/p>\n<p>However the experience was totally different now, to say it was harder was an understatement. <\/p>\n<p>I got dizzy at the same exact spot; the first major uphill &#8211; which kinda suggests that <em>that<\/em> particular uphill was more arduous than the others that followed&#8230; and that it was the first one you&#8217;d hit doesn&#8217;t help (since I don&#8217;t warm up or anything). Next time, I&#8217;m definitely going to pace myself there.<\/p>\n<h2>Cleats<\/h2>\n<p>This was also the time I decided to wear cleats. I&#8217;m not sure if it was a dumb or smart move given that the first time I had chosen to use them <em>outside<\/em> of road conditions <em>had<\/em> to be in a more dangerous situation. I&#8217;m so glad that I didn&#8217;t experience falling because of them&#8230; was always able to clip-out somehow.<\/p>\n<h2>Fall<\/h2>\n<p>I <em>did<\/em> fall however &#8211; in singletrack path we loved to bomb through the first time we went. Apparently the &#8220;bamboo-rail&#8221; paths are <em>super slippery<\/em> when wet; so when Alan and I got to one part&#8230; we slid out of control <em>hahaha!<\/em> Good times! But Bruno only got a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zGBy_MarX4s\">shot of <em>me<\/em> falling<\/a> <em>hahahaha!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m still glad though, that I didn&#8217;t fall because of the cleats.<\/p>\n<h2>Cramps<\/h2>\n<p>I also got my first taste of biking cramps. Not the cramps that come from putting some unnatural strain on a body part, <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_975_1('footnote_plugin_reference_975_1_2');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_975_1('footnote_plugin_reference_975_1_2');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_975_1_2\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">2 <\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_975_1_2\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">I get that a lot whenever I would try doing some weird posture<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_975_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_975_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script> but a natural cramping up of the hamstrings because of muscle fatigue.<\/p>\n<p>I guess a factor would be that the trail; while it was the same route, it was much more difficult because of the wet mud &#8211; everything felt <em>so much heavier!<\/em> Also, I couldn&#8217;t hydrate properly at some point; I already sucked out all the liquid part of my bladder&#8230; leaving just the ice (and coincidentally, <em>that&#8217;s<\/em> when I started cramping up as well)<\/p>\n<p>Didn&#8217;t give up though, so that&#8217;s a good thing. I did feel frustrated on the downhills on the way back because I couldn&#8217;t go as fast as I wanted; the cramps would return and I&#8217;d instead use the downhill runs to &#8220;stretch&#8221; my legs &#8211; which doesn&#8217;t really put me in a good &#8220;downhill posture.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>Overall<\/h2>\n<p>The best description I could give this ride was that it was <em>a man&#8217;s trail ride;<\/em> because women would definitely hate it&#8230; and God knows I myself found myself cursing so much at some point wether it be because of cramping up, or how heavy the fucking soil was, or how the uphills seemed to never end. But it was very fulfilling as far as <em>&#8220;no pain, no gain&#8221;<\/em> is concerned<\/p>\n<p>We finished the same route <em>plus<\/em> a few extra kilometers by lunch (I think) &#8211; that&#8217;s about 2-3 hours earlier than when we did it when it was dry and shorter. So that definitely felt like an accomplishment for me.<\/p><div class=\"speaker-mute footnotes_reference_container\"> <div class=\"footnote_container_prepare\"><p><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_label pointer\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_975_1();\">Notes<\/span><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button\" style=\"display: none;\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_975_1();\">[<a id=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_975_1\">+<\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/div> <div id=\"footnote_references_container_975_1\" style=\"\"><table class=\"footnotes_table footnote-reference-container\"><caption class=\"accessibility\">Notes<\/caption> <tbody> \r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_975_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_975_1_1');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_975_1_1\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8673;<\/span>1<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">We reached the perimeter walls of the Reserve<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_975_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_975_1_2');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_975_1_2\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8673;<\/span>2<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">I get that a lot whenever I would try doing some weird posture<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n <\/tbody> <\/table> <\/div><\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> function footnote_expand_reference_container_975_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_975_1').show(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_975_1').text('\u2212'); } function footnote_collapse_reference_container_975_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_975_1').hide(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_975_1').text('+'); } function footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_975_1() { if (jQuery('#footnote_references_container_975_1').is(':hidden')) { footnote_expand_reference_container_975_1(); } else { footnote_collapse_reference_container_975_1(); } } function footnote_moveToReference_975_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_975_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } } function footnote_moveToAnchor_975_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_975_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } }<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today was supposed to be another fun big-group newbie ride, but because of the rains it was cancelled&#8230; but there were some of us who still &#8220;pushed&#8221; through despite the risks of a much wetter\/muddier trail. It was worth it! More photos here I went with Bruno, Alan and AJ. I ended up being the &hellip; <p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2009\/07\/12\/la-mesa-nature-reserve-take-2\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;La Mesa Nature Reserve Take 2&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[312],"class_list":["post-975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cycling","tag-cycling"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=975"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1868,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975\/revisions\/1868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}