Progress :)

[Catrin]

3 hours of sweet single-track today...walked very little of it...NO CRASHES or even emergency stops...heart rate was far lower...felt like I was riding my bike and not the reverse...AND I received comments from friends that I am faster.

I will take it - AND I had lots of fun. Ya know, I kind of feel like a kid on the trails and that is a good feeling. That isn't new, but today felt so very different from all of my previous mtb rides.

I love my tough little Jamis, my mountain goat rocks and she is, apparently, unbreakable!

[Roadtrip]

Very glad your having fun on your Jamis.

[Caddy]

Today was the first time I took my cross out to the trails, and apparently half of it was single track with dense vegetation around. I was most definitely going slow, but had a great time too

Look forward to hearing more about your progress!

[Aggie_Ama]

WAY TO GO! It is a day like this that shows your hardwork is paying off. Brought a much needed smile to my face.

[tzvia]

That's good to hear! It's hard to enjoy it if you are tense, nervous. Plus the energy that was wasted combating it can now be put towards riding- as you are doing. So the heart rate is lower and the speeds are up. I learned mountain biking by going on the same trail over and over, each time going farther and clearing more and more of the stuff I was afraid of before. The familiarity created a drop in nerves, so I started riding the rocky parts, the rutted area, the deep sand spot, the stairstepped downhill. A little at a time.

Good job.

The hardest thing for me is not fixating on the front wheel. Lift your head, Tzvia- look down the trail- don't let things surprise you. Look where you are going- not at a patch of dirt 5 feet in front of your tire! Look up...

[Catrin]

That's good to hear! It's hard to enjoy it if you are tense, nervous. Plus the energy that was wasted combating it can now be put towards riding- as you are doing. So the heart rate is lower and the speeds are up. I learned mountain biking by going on the same trail over and over, each time going farther and clearing more and more of the stuff I was afraid of before. The familiarity created a drop in nerves, so I started riding the rocky parts, the rutted area, the deep sand spot, the stairstepped downhill. A little at a time.

Good job.

The hardest thing for me is not fixating on the front wheel. Lift your head, Tzvia- look down the trail- don't let things surprise you. Look where you are going- not at a patch of dirt 5 feet in front of your tire! Look up...

This is what I've been doing, heading back to a more advanced beginners trail and just riding it again, and again, and... I cannot ride all of it just yet and right now I am only attempting 2/3 of it - and today I rode almost all of it. The 1/3 part I've not been able to ride is more technical (to me) and I've been focusing on riding the REST of the trail before I start tackling the remaining 1/3. I will start THAT next Saturday, weather permitting Today I rode quite a lot that I've only walked in the past

I just try to remember to keep looking ahead, to not try and "steer" the bike, and to keep pedaling! For some reason I seem to think that momentum will carry me over obstacles - sometimes that even works - but pedaling is a GOOD thing..

[Aggie_Ama]

Good point about being loose and not tense. I still struggle with this some days. I can't wait to hear how your attempt at the other 1/3 goes and if it isn't a success at first you know you can build on it. You have made big progress since that clinic.

[Nick]

Great to hear, Catrin! I love your stories about progress and adventures on the trail.

[hebe]

Hurray! I love the joy in your post. Good luck with the remaining third!

[Catrin]

I think I would have tried the ride the bits I walked yesterday if I hadn't forgotten my shin guards - they help protect me if I fall over. I am glad to report that outside of some very, very light scratches from the pins on my BMX pedals that really weren't apparently until this morning, I only have one actual wound from them - and that was from walking my bike 4 steps to get it on my bike rack

I think Tzvia nailed the difference, I was much more relaxed and the bike responded to that. I also didn't realize until I checked what gear my rear cassette was in this morning that I was riding a harder gear than I realized. My rear cassette is 11-36 and I think that some of my earlier problems were from being in too easy a gear, though I still needed to do that. For now I am staying in the small chain, but that still gives me a lot of room to play in the back.

Planning a repeat engagement next Saturday, weather and trail conditions permitting!

Oh yes, I also realized another benefit to riding in the woods, wind protection I hate the wind...

That clinic was quite helpful, but my group was just too large. It was a great beginning and it really helped me a great deal to have a private session with a great instructor about a month later & we went through all of the same drills from the clinic and then built some on that.