10-mile mountain bike ride with my buddy. Got my full attention. Nothing technical, but a lot of steep climbing. He had a route planned out on logging roads basically. It was only my third ride on the bike I bought like 6 months ago so I'm still figuring the dang thing out. A 29'er with suspension is a really different bike than a carbon road bike running ultegra. I love the traction and disc brakes on downhills; it reminds me of the dirt bikes I had growing up. Uphills are getting better. The problem is, can't stand up to pedal in steep dirt; the rear wheel loses traction and there's only so far you can shift your weight back.... I was able to coordinate my [bleep] enough to foresee the slightly flatter spots in climbs where I COULD upshift 4-5 gears and stand up for a while, then, downshift those same 4-5 gears as I was sitting down because it was getting too steep again, without losing momentum or spinning out. Being able to stand up even briefly really helps me in a long hard climb so this is good.
