Recovering from a Tough Mountain Biking Adventure

Hi friends!

How was your weekend? Mine was full of time outdoors – just how I like it! The weather was in the low 70s and glorious. We also got a teeny bit of welcomed rain yesterday afternoon. My time spent in nature over the weekend included an early Friday evening hike with my pup at Elfin Forest…

…a long Sunday morning walk with my little family on an otherwise pretty lazy rest day…

…and my outdoorsy highlight: a super challenging mountain biking workout with my hubby on Saturday afternoon. We decided to venture southeast to a park we’d never been to before called Goodan Ranch Sycamore Canyon Preserve. We hadn’t gone mountain biking in at least a few months, and whew, it was a killer one!

The park was set in a pretty rural area, and we even got a taste of  autumn with the park’s abundance of yellow-leaved trees. Besides seeing a couple of other bikers along the way, the park was empty.

On our way out, we were cruising! The cool breeze hitting your face as you race around on a bike is such a great feeling, and I think my face hurt from smiling. The trail we were biking along was more downhill than up going out, which is sometimes trouble because that means that it’ll be tough on the way back when I’m already getting tired – which is exactly what happened.

Shortly after we turned around to head back, I was hit with a very real feeling of exhaustion. My legs felt heavy, and it felt like I was using up all of my energy peddling. I think that A sensed my tank getting empty, so we opted for an easier trail for the second half of the ride back.

One challenge of the trail was lots of loose rocks. My bike is really old and I think I kind of feel bumps in the road harder than a nicer, newer bike, so I was struggling. My bike got completely turned sideways when it hit a big rock not once, but twice! I’m not sure how, but I managed to hop off my bike as it skidded parallel to the ground both times, and I luckily left without a scratch.

Towards the end, I had an insatiable thirst that wasn’t cured by sips of my water bottle, my quads were on fire, and I was feeling hunger pangs. Oh, and in full disclosure, another annoyance was that my bike seat was hurting my crotch (definitely one of the cons of biking!).

I wasn’t sure if it was because I hadn’t eaten a big enough breakfast or hadn’t been biking in awhile, but I was feeling weak. When I reached our truck and looked at my heart rate monitor, I saw that I had burned over 1,100 calories in 2 hours. I knew that my body had been working hard to bike up those hills! I left my watch on for the car ride home, and burned another 200 calories during that time. A 1,300 calorie burn is a big number for me, and A and I agree that an immediate refuel was in order.

We stopped at Jamba Juice for some protein fruit smoothies. It hit the spot and I immediately felt better. Once we got home, I jumped in the shower, then laid down to watch football and nap. I’m not a big napper, but once in awhile, a midday snooze it just what I need. It felt great to relax for a few hours after my body felt so fatigued and drained from my workout!

After gaining the momentum to get out of bed and get ready, we headed over to a nearby Thai restaurant called Ocean Thai to grab dinner. A and I split vegetable spring rolls…

…and then I ate some tofu pad Thai. It’s probably my favorite Thai dish ever! My body was craving some yummy carbs, and while I wish that it had some more veggies, the dish was pretty good regardless.

A smoothie + a nap + Thai food carbs = a wonderful workout recovery combo! It’s so important to take good care of yourself after workouts.

Afterwards we headed over to our friends’ Leanna & Marco’s house for a drink. A glass of red wine isn’t completely necessary in my post-workout recovery, but hey, it doesn’t usually hurt either. 🙂

The next day when both my hubby and I woke up with an upper respiratory thing happening, I realized that maybe a cold was already brewing in my body and weakening me during our bike excursion. With body aches and sore throats, Sunday was a much needed rest day with lots of tea, soup and Vitamin C. It’s weird how we both got under the weather in the same exact day. I don’t think that’s every happened before, especially since both of us rarely get sick, but I’m sure we’ll be back to normal in a few days!

Mountain biking is definitely made for fearless adventurers who like the adrenaline rush of racing down mountains, and sometimes it scares the hell out of me… which is part of its allure I think! I think we’ll be heading back to Sycamore Canyon sometime again soon – and hopefully next time, my legs won’t feel like a hundred pounds for the last 45 minutes of the ride!

Tell me… What was the last workout that left you exhausted? What’s your favorite post-workout meal?