Had a hard time getting out of town today; Craig, Jon, Tori and I arrived at the chosen trailhead and were ready to ride at 3pm. Funny that we couldn't collectively mobilize any faster.
We started at deadmans flats, rode back on the Trans-Canada trail, over Jewel Pass, came UP the "race course" that everyone rides down off the switchbacks going up the other side of Jewel, and back along the highway was we ran out of time.
Good fun for the most part. But Erik's brain spent a lot of time thinking as his legs and body piloted him along... where has the mojo gone? When did my ability to really RIDE a mountain bike regress substantially? Slippery rocks were bugging me. Stairs I wouldn't have even blinked at prior I was walking down, all the while telling myself how dumb that was cause they're more slippery by foot than by bike. I fear leaning my bike over enough to get the side knobs of the tire to bite, which is totally counterproductive. And while I'm walking all sorts of obstacles, I have plenty of time to dwell on this.
Some of it may have happened with the Fernie wipeout, some of it is attributable to less time on a mountain bike, and some of it is likely due to perception change - ie. if pacing is being set by Jon on singletrack... not being able to keep up is a pretty predictable outcome. But I've tried to abstract from that measuring stick - I really just feel clumsy and inferior, an inside perception rather than an exterior measurement. The trail is in control of me rather than the other way around. I'm reacting late constantly instead of predicting and flowing.
For my own sanity I need to improve. I'm going to commute by mountain bike more and spend more time at Bowmont fooling around on the technical trails. I'm going to get my eye prescription updated as my left eye vision seems a little suspect - I don't fixate on trail objects as I know I can roll over them, but having said that I'm getting some funny input from the current contact lens. I'm also gonna try a few rides on the Turner again. I can't really say anything bad about the S-Works, but my mind is asking if there's any correlation (or placebo effect?) If I go back. I long for the more competent days of yesteryear on the Turner, whether or not it's totally uncorrelated or not is yet to be figured out.
We've lined up another good group ride for tomorrow (location unknown), but still staying with the theme of "everyone that's coming will likely ride faster/better than Erik". I like it, it's my self improvement tool. I just hurts 99% of the time. We'll see if tonight magically brings back some mojo.
No comments:
Post a Comment