Muse back!
June 20, 2009 / Saturday
Dirt, Dirt, More Dirt
Three dirt rides in one week! That's a new record for me. What can I say? I've really missed being able to ride.
Saturday afternoon, we went to Wilder Ranch. It's a step up from Chabot and St. Joseph's Hill in terms of technical difficulty; just what I needed to give my still-healing back a two-wheeled challenge. Mostly, it's just a good fun ride with a few features to challenge me.
My biggest dirt project right now is turning on descents. I have an unfortunate habit of tensing up through turns, which makes me run wide, which makes me look to the outside of the turn thinking, "Oh crap, I'm running wide!", which, in turn, makes me run even wider.
Basically, I just need to relax. Relax, look through the turn, stay light, loose, and let my bike do the rest.
That should be easy, right? I'm getting better at it, and when I finally have it down, I'm sure I'll wonder what the big deal was.
Speaking of looking through the turn, I'm finding this looking ahead thing to be useful everywhere. Looking ahead and/or through a turn lets me:
- do track stands easier
- turn a 180 on the trail easier
- turn around switchbacks easier
- turn at speed easier
- ride in a straight line easier
- ride over bumpy terrain easier
I've known that I'm supposed to do this since pretty much day one, but for some reason it took 3+ seasons of riding before it sank in enough for me to start doing it semi-consistenly.
This was so amazingly evident to me last Tuesday at Chabot. I forgot to mention this in my last ride post, but during that ride we crossed a long, narrow bridge with railings just a few inches wider than our handlebars. I struggled for the first 10 feet, rubbing one railing and then the other as I looked at them and exclaimed, "Nooo!". Then I looked up toward end of the bridge, and just like that, I rode in a perfectly straight line, with equal distance between the narrow railings.
Looking ahead is magic!
During my last visit to Wilder, I learned to take drops at speed. This time, I learned to take them better at slower speeds (some trails you just shouldn't try to fly down) by pushing the bike forward and down. Again, it's something I've known for a while now, but was only recently able to convince my body to do. It made my descent on Zane Gray faster, smoother, and more fun. I was able to take a more difficult line while feeling more confident and in control.
This season, I've made it a point to take the hardest line I can handle out on the trails. You wouldn't know it with all the accidents I've had, but I've actually gotten a lot better at riding over and through reasonably sized obstacles.
This was gross:
V: There's something making my eye sting.
A: Maybe it's sweat.
V: Maybe it's sunblock.
A couple hours later, I rubbed my eye and a mangled bug came out. Eww!!!
On our way back to the car, we stopped to b-bock at the chickens (they b-bocked back), meh-eh-eh at the goats (they ignored me), and ride the sawhorse.
I'm a big dork, and Wilder Ranch is fun. :)