Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Austria Mountain Biking

Kiet and I rented mountain bikes today in search of an epic adventure. Austria delivered. He found a mountain bike app for his phone that allowed us to track our route offline and then proceeded to select the hardest route available. We rented some mountain bikes and started pedaling (tennis shoes mind you - no clipped in pedals for us...)


About a mile into the ride we started climbing. Up and up and up. I have been running 50-60 miles a week for a while. My riding consists of about one (flat) coffee shop recovery (read: soft-pedal) ride a week. I figured if there was cappuccino somewhere on the route maybe my body wouldn't know the difference.


It was rather toasty out and even the goats were hiding in the shade.


I stopped several times to "take photos" - and eat the giant Bavarian pretzel I had stuffed into my pack before we left. I'm fairly certain without that pretzel I might be sitting next to a cow with a giant bell around his neck watching the sunset rather than writing this.


The views were breathtaking. Literally.


My legs hated me. I may have walked. Several times. I suppose a 27 mile ride with 5200 feet of climbing might be a tad bit aggressive off coffee shop training.


But then again, I made it, so I think my training plan is fairly solid.


And you know what - in Austria they have little hüttes at the top of the mountains with cakes (that I can't pronounce - I think mine was a schwetze...strudel) that are served with Suhne. Always say yes when asked if you want suhne (it's fresh whipped cream)! I got my cappuccino and then descended the mountain for a very, very, very long time, making my "coffee shop ride" complete.