Monday, July 5, 2010

Rough creekbed love


Creekbeds are not soft.

Sunday arrived early at Bear with shuttles starting at 8:15. The track was wearing in a bit but the dirt was tacky and my lines were working flawlessly. I did one training lap with one of my U17 racers and decided that I was satisfied with my runs. Everything was flowing perfectly so I cleaned and prepped my bike, ate a delicious lunch, visualized my race run a couple times and settled into a chill day of hanging out in the pits, playing lots of guitar and cheering on other racers. I spent a fair bit of time over the day planning my run out and committing my headspace to the task ahead. It helped a lot and I felt more centered than I have yet this year before racing. As the last bus headed up it started to rain on us a bit, but by the time we got to the top it had subsided to misty drizzle. As everyone was warming up riders were joking that the roots would be super slippery and everyone should slow down and be careful, which made for a good laugh, but I pretty much decided it was not going to affect my pace. The top of the mountain during pro starts is honestly my favorite place in the world, and at Bear it was no different. There is no place where you have such a clear, focused mind and are surrounded by so many friends in the same head space. The energy is unique, empowering and slightly addictive. In the gate I thanked my start volunteer friends and then charged. I carried my momentum well over the flats up top while staying committed to pacing and quickly made it down into the most technical section of the trail. I hit my first couple lines perfectly and carried perhaps a bit more speed then in training into a stepped out rocky creekbed section. The section entailed a fallaway right turn into a series of high-speed rocky whoops and then a jump turn from the last step onto an off-camber rock to hip out. It was pretty tech to ride but became kind of gnarly at speed. I came in hot and dropped a little further than before out of the right hander into the first step. I landed in the compression a little outside on a root I had been avoiding, which threw me forwards and inside. I hit another rock and flipped, gapping across the creek bed to land on a large boulder with my hip and elbow before ragdolling down the creek-bed, ending up on my back upside down in the mud. All I can say is thank god for pads. It took me a bit to right myself, and when I got up vollies were running up the trail with scared looks in their eyes. I asked them to take my bike off the trail and limped to the sidelines. I was pretty sore and shaken so it took me till after the next rider had passed to decide that I was not going to end my weekend walking down the trail. I straightened my bars, got back on my bike and started down the trail. I wasn’t sure how well I would be able to ride but after a bit I was flowing pretty decently. I let another rider pass mid-way down the trail as I didn’t want to inhibit anyone else’s runs, but I was able to hit everything on the trail and still have some fun with it. Once I got off the bike I was not nearly as mobile, however. I was also a bit disappointed that I threw away another run on the circuit. Crashing is part of racing and one of the strongest motivators for learning, so the lessons are in my face and I have my work cut out for me.

Happy trails,

J

No comments: