NEW BIKE DAY!!!! Can you tell I’m excited? I am now the lucky owner of a 2018 Specialized Stumpjumper. I am not going to get all geeky and go through the specs because then no one would read my blog!

For our honeymoon (a little over one year ago) my husband and I rode our bikes across the US – from Oceanside, CA to Bar Harbour, ME. Total mileage = 4,101. You can read our blog here. During this time we rode about 50 miles on dirt and the rest on paved roads. Those 50 miles on dirt were not intentional since our bikes weighed so much and we had skinny tires, riding on dirt slowed down our pace. When we finished our trip, I was (and still am) ready to get off the road. I’m ready to be in the woods, surrounded by nature not cars. This brings me to my new purchase, a full suspension mountain bike.

While I still want to ride on the road, I am going to focus on mountain biking. Winter is coming up and so I will not be able to ride outside much but I will train inside to get stronger (using TrainerRoad, of course). When spring arrives, I’ll be my strongest. So why purchase now? We have a few upcoming trips to warmer weather and it’s my birthday month!

Yesterday we went for my first ride. We rode 4 miles up Lower Galena Creek Trail in south Reno. It did not start out great… we loaded up the car, left the house, and on the second roundabout from our house MY BIKE FELL OFF THE CAR RACK!!! I screamed. My bike was fine, no scratches – I am thankful nothing worse happened.

We loaded my bike into the car, since I no longer trusted the rack, and drove to the trailhead. At first the ride was fine but then I started to get overwhelmed and frustrated. The only mountain biking I’ve ever done was on the the White Rim Trail outside Moab, UT for 100 miles and that was 1.5 years ago! I need to work on my overall body strength and start lifting weights again which will help my bike handling. We’re in the process of finding a gym so stay tuned for my workouts!

As for now, I am going to stick with easy trails until I’m more comfortable on my bike! Cheers!