Woohoo! Share Your Achievements.

Tonight I finally made it up a feature called "The Wall" at one of our local trails. I have never made it because I always braked on the downhill that runs up to the wall so I didn't have the momentum for the wall. It is basically a very steep dirt hill, one side is a little less steep but there are small roots at the top which always tripped me up. My Fisher is so much more comfortable than my old bike I had previously attempted the wall on, I just find it easier to trust the bike. I don't know if that is it but it was definitely worth of a "WOOHOO!"

Have you had a great moment lately?

I did my longest ride ever, today...71 miles!

Second place cat 2 40+ at my bike bike race Sunday. 19 miles in HOT weather.

I was in first place for about half the race, but was slowed down by the 98 degree heat on the last lap. I was 5 secs behind the leader, who is an outstanding rider and a gracious competitor.

The biggest accomplishment for me was riding over my first narrow bridge. It literally goes up like a triangle. At the peak/intersection, there's a step up and the downside shifts directions. I'm not sure I explained that well, but its very intimidating looking. That was my first big technical hurdle :D

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Originally Posted by rocknrollgirl

Second place cat 2 40+ at my bike bike race Sunday. 19 miles in HOT weather.

I was in first place for about half the race, but was slowed down by the 98 degree heat on the last lap. I was 5 secs behind the leader, who is an outstanding rider and a gracious competitor.

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Hey, that's excellent! Are you going to tell us more? :D

Veronica

Sure....
I race on a team here in NJ. We have a series called H2H that runs through all of the major venues in southern NY and northern NJ. The terrain is technical, rocky, hilly single track, some double track. The past two seasons I have done the entire series, and triathlons. There are 8 races, you must do 6 to score.
This season, I am focusing on Xterra off road tri's and doing fewer pure mt bike races. I raced on Sunday because it is a big one for our team. This is my least favorite venue.

We had a really small field on Sunday. Just 6 on the line. Lots of younger cat 3 and cat 2 girls out, but the "experienced" girls have not been showing up this year. We started last as usual. It was already 90 plus degrees when the gun went off.

I got the hole shot. The first section is a creek crossing and then uphill on a very rooty section, sharp hairpin turn and more roots. A fast, trecherous downhill and across a bridge.

This is where my main competition caught me. She is an excellent climber. The entire first half of the course is climbing, so I settled in, thinking...ok, if we can hang on for two hours we will go 1-2.

When we got to the downhill section of the course, she yelled back that I could pass, that she not very aggressive downhill. I said no, I will hang here.
We came around the end of lap one, I was right on her wheel, my teammates cheering for me.

I settled in again for lap two, but this time after the climbing I said screw it and passed her. I put my big wheel bike in the big chain ring and dropped the hammer. I came around the end of lap two out in front. More cheering!

By lap three, the heat was becoming a major factor. On laps one and two, I tried to climb in my small ring, stay out of the red, save some legs for lap 3.
I was just about delerious....literally talking myself through every turn, over every bridge, just hold on, you will be done soon.

She caught me with about 1/4 of the last lap to go. I got right back on her wheel and flew though the last 2 miles, crossing the line 5 secs behind.

It was pretty cool to pass someone that I respect and admire as a racer.

Better yet, the next person in our group to cross the line, was 13 mins behind!

I did NOTHING note worthy this week - but YAY to all of you!!!

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Originally Posted by zoom-zoom

I did my longest ride ever, today...71 miles!

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On a mountain bike???!!!!

I did my first full century the day before my 50th birthday.
Saturday-Cartersville Century
Sunday-Birthday

We're talking about DIRT time i this area, not roadie stuff..:rolleyes:

I shall tell you what I conquer with my new bike next week. I'm taking it on a day trip to a funky trail a couple hours away. Tis the site of our next shorty enduro(a 4hr) at the end o july & wanna try it out again. We had a race there a few weeks ago but came last last last because i was unable to get there beforehand and helped out the morning of so couldn't get a practice lap in...

My next goal is to make it up "the Elevator"..

Um, yah. This is the mountain biking forum...

I got to apprentice coach with Cindy Devine for four days up in Canada, that was pretty cool.

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Originally Posted by Irulan

On a mountain bike???!!!!

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Oops, no...that's what I get for reading the board via "new posts" and not paying attention to forum category.

Carry on. :p

Well, I'm in Bend OR on an MTB vacation right now, so I guess taking Kents to Phils up to H, then taking lower Whoops back to Bens and the trailhead is it for me. H was a %%$*& for sure. I did not know when I started the ride that it would climb so much (I guess that's why it is double diamond) but once on it I stuck with it. Had to walk a bit- some of that volcanic rock near the top was almost too slick to walk on! Someone was going down and said 'it's easier my way' as he went by. No kidding.

As for Whoops, I've never ridden on jumps and tabletops before. So I just winged it and tried not to look too lame and not crash. So that's it for me. My first single and double black diamond ride, and my first tabletops and drops. And I did not crash.

I am okay with roadies but I am glad to hear some mountain accomplishments. :)

I must have accomplished too much because it has been raining buckets. It is making me a bit cranky since I have no desire to do anything but tear up some singletrack!!!

Okay this is not really an accomplishment but I learned something really important: to stay clipped in when you are falling, and keep pedaling even if you feel like you are falling. Last week I was in the woods with DH, we were coming up a steep, technical grade, I chickened out and tried to clip out. As I was clipping out, the bike came down hard on my ankle, breaking it in two places.

So I have a long recovery to look forward to, and my husband is threatening to sell my bike. But I want to get back out there and get over my fears, and learn to do it right!