Monday and Tuesday Rest – big external audit week at work = long long days of panic checking the system!
WednesdayVisit to Herts shore as the OH had a training day with Jedi. I didn’t do a lot of riding tbh, the audit week was stressing me out and I always find herts very intimidating. There is no easy lines, no easy jumps, just stuff that requires every inch of bike skill to come together.
The day was for Ian and not me, so I tried to stay out of the way as much as possible! I did get a bit of advice off Jedi though….got told what I already know, that I always look down when I am jumping. Such a terrible habit, and no matter what I do, I can’t seem to break it. I am really stuck with what to do about it. Jedi also told me to bring my pelvis forward when cornering. That was very useful feedback and immediately made ‘sense’.
ThursdayLadies MCS evening ride. Finally, a beautiful sparkily evening with crispy trails. I took the camera out to get a few long exposure pics.
Also, would like to note, made the climb out of St Ann’s Café to Lady DeWaldens Drive. It’s a big ol climb for me, but did it, and was reet proud of myself….as you all know by now, me n climbing don’t always see eye to eye! 12.3 km total.
FridayThe weather changed again, and I got soaked to the skin riding the 3.9 km of constant uphill from the garage to home, and then having the joy of sliding across the park back to the garage when the van was fixed!
Gym in the evening. I knew squatting on a Friday would be a bad idea before a weekend of riding, but I had not been well pretty much since Wednesday with a bit of a grumbly stomach which really hit me Friday – guess it must’ve been a bug. Knew I wouldn’t have a lot of energy for a big ride on Saturday anyway and really desperately needed to squat after not doing so for a long ol’ time.
Considering how little food I had managed to digest in the day, the session went ok!
Warm up – 10 mins row, 10 mins x-train
Squats – free: 10, 10 bar: 10, 10
30 kg: 5 40 kg: 5
45 kg: 5x5
Pulls warm up then – 4, 3, 3, 3
Bench
Bar: 10, 10, 10
25 kg: 10, 10
30 kg: 10
35 kg: 5x5
SaturdayHad two riding options lined up (a big epic or timed practice) and neither were appealing with a stomach bug. So headed to the Forest of Dean to build some trails in the morning and then ride some DH in the afternoon with the trail bikes. Building is really rewarding, really wish we could do much more than we do, and wish more people would get involved.
We were helping rework the Freeminers red XC trail, which runs through some of my favourite bits of the FoD. Just beautiful
Riding the trail bike on the very wet, very slippy, and rather rooty DH trails after was a bit of an eye opener though!
SundayRumblings about sponsorship for next year are still continuing, so figured I better pull my finger out and get some DH practice in. That, and the fact that I can barely walk where my DOMS are so bad from Friday, meant we pushed about for the day rather than pedalled on an XC epic. TBH, it was ‘work’….the proper DH tracks in the Midlands have a lot going on, and Bucknell, particularly, I struggle with. Full of massive jumps, doubles, petrifying root sections and steep roll-downs, the trail has no let up from constant challenge. I may have to race this trail…..atm I can’t even ride it properly *gulps*
Really tried to focus on spotting key markers, braking zones and looking ahead…..but mostly it just did not come together and we called it a day after 3 hrs.
This jump is the most fun bit of the whole trail
But clearing this one was a right challenge
I have a long way to go, and really need to get my airbourne mojo back asap.
2013 will start of well.
