After yesterdays' mixed ride I could not resist doing a proper mountainbike ride today. And obviously Meerdael Forest has been beckoning for a while now for me to get back in. I did not spray for horseflies - I sprayed enough yesterday - but I did wear long sleeved trousers and jersey. It looked to me that the horsefly season is truely coming to an end, opening up the offroad adventure box for me.
I settled on doing the Meerdael Bloso routes. Starting out with the Green, then hopping on the Blue, then the Red and finishing off with the Blue again. The tracks were super, dry and fast and only a hint of mud here and there. It takes some getting used to the bumpy offroad again, and of course to a bike that is suspended, as opposed to the road bike. But the technical prowess is still there and I felt confident in myself and the bike on the downhills.  The forest was still bearing the scars of the heavy august thunderstorms as there were some new ruts in the descents and some parts were cleaned out by forestry workers. But the legs still felt surprisingly good and I managed to maintain a solid average of just above 20kph throughout the entire ride. Also my heartrate average was pretty low which to me means that my heart was a lot stronger than my legs. Legs that have been building up fatigue throughout the last 5 days of riding, there is no way around that. But the 2XU compression pants seem to work since the overall feeling of my legs is that they feel less fatigued than one would expect after all the training work they have endured.

Endomondo track


Ride Stats : 56K and 470/565 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 2h38mins

9912/82480