Winter Training with Mike and Dylan

Mike, new Scott team recruit Dylan Johnson, and I have been riding parts of the Montgomery County Epic Loop in Montgomery County, Maryland the past two Sundays.  The MoCo Epic is on IMBA's registry of epic rides and it doesn't disappoint.  Just a few miles from DC, you can find a 60 mile circuit of great singletrack.

This past weekend, we got in almost 50 miles and 4.5 hours of nearly all singletrack riding at a solid endurance pace.  It's great to be cruising along in the cold weather, keeping up a good endurance pace and flying through the trails that are now mostly cleared of fallen leaves.

We started out from Schaeffer Farms in Germantown, MD and took the new Schaeffer Ridge Trail, a 4-5 mile section of trail the local trail building/advocacy group MORE built over the past year.  It's awesome!

 

 

The trail also comes with a few skulls to welcome riders, and they're dressed appropriately for this time of the year:

The trail has a few stream crossings and to try and avoid wet feet while riding in 40 degree temps, we all rode the crossings.  Here's Mike following Dylan's lead across the water and up the bank on the other side:

   

The loop crosses through multiple county parks and the terrain varied from flowing and fast to some rocks and roots and steep climbs.  Thankfully the sun was out most of the day and while my feet were cold from the water crossings, I stayed generally pretty warm.  I think Mike was wearing just about every piece of cycling clothing he owns!  Here's Mike's take on the ride

Dylan had already gotten in a 5 hour ride the day before, but we chased him all day - the kid is awesome at climbs and even better in technical sections.  The day ended on a fun pump track at the Germantown soccer complex:

I hope the good weather on the weekends holds through January and February.  We'll be back out on the loop again after the New Year for some more 4-5 hour Sunday rides through the singletrack of Maryland.

Here are the details from the loop:

- Jeff