Foxboro

Foxboro is the answer to ALL the mountain bike questions. Where can I go to get rad? FOXBORO. Where can I go ride off sick boulders? FOXBORO. Where can I go ride where they hunt: Crows(?), Black Bears, Frogs and other Amphibians? FOXBORO. Where can I ride berms all day? FOXBORO. Where can I freak out hopping logs? FOXBORO. Where can I see motocross bikes riding the trail with me (brrrraaaapppp!!!)? FOXBORO Where can I ride ALL DAY LONG? FOXBORO

A huge thanks to my mechanic and partner in grime Scott Novick for taking me out and taking me on a crazy ass ride. And not killing me. That part can't be understated. I haven't been on one of these in a long time. And I seriously needed it. I guess to put it in a box you would call it an adventure ride. I did say all day when he asked me how long we should ride. Foxboro is gorgeous. In a kick you in the nuts and force you to ride your ass off to keep up type of way. I was back on the Seven with its 26 inch wheels and I have to say they felt soooo slow. It was weird after being on the 29er. It did feel nimble and the time on the 29er and riding singlespeed helped enormously. There was all kinds of crazy though. We rode to Warehem in a bushwacking/freeriding down gravel sort of way. But all the suffering and slogging through mud bogs was worth it. We got some sick bermed descents. Rode some insane rocks. And rocks freak me out. But when you are following someone who knows the place like the back of his hand all you have to do is follow his line and don't think to much. I ended off into the trees a few times. Had to crawl back up a boulder after overcooking a turn. But all my bones and even my ego were intact

We did find "Rocky" not exactly sure if this is a memorial to a person or a pet cemetery. Either way its a nice spot to rest in peace. 17 miles hurt a lot. I was bonking pretty hard. Which led to another conversation. Cait Dooley tweeted a while back about a conversion rate for mileage on a mountain bike. At the time I wasn't in the mood to get sucked into one more twitter fight. But it was something I had been thinking about a lot. Its a very valid question for someone coming from cross or the road. I mean you look at the distance for a sport mtn bike race and you are like "10 miles!?" Are you kidding me? Then you go ride ten miles on a mountain bike in New England and you feel destroyed. You try and race it and you are broken for days. Granted there is the "jackhammer" factor and you must consider elevation as a lot of what we do is more "woods" biking than mountainbiking. But its hard. Today's ride almost broke me. But its fun so you suck it up have a Gu and keep riding. But in fairness to her a more honest answer may have been helpful. So here you go 3:1. I think that is a fair conversion rate without factoring in terrain features etc. As an average 3 to 1 makes a lot of sense.

Riding with Scott was awesome. He has mad skills to say the least and is fit right now. I am not fit. At all. Amazing how you can lose so much fitness in two weeks. Funny how that works. If you don't actually ride your bike you get slower. Weird. I guess I better start riding more than three days a week...