So starts my sixth season riding a mountain bike. I still remember the first ride I took back in Oct 2004. It was at Waverly park. I remember riding for a couple of hours that day. At times when going down hill I felt like I was almost flying. When going uphill I felt like I was dying....It was great...I realized that this sport offered me something that no other activity I had tried did...thrill, exertion, and the feeling of utter defeat. The latter came a day after my first ride when the doctor revealed that my first mountain bike crash resulted in a broken foot and ankle...I was soundly defeated, but that was not enough stir me away from the sport....it only took a couple hours for me to be hooked. Six years later I still ride...or as we like to call it SHRED!
Over the last six years my riding has evolved..I have found that I love to ride in the mountains and the back country...I prefer these much more than groomed trails. I like the challenge of technical obstacles...I like to ride downhill fast...I like to see how fast I can take turns, fly through rock gardens and how big of log I can get over. I like to take trips to new places and trips to places I really had a great time at. I did over 10 out state trips last year not counting Indiana. Towards the end of last year I started hitting jumps, something I had been deafly afraid of in the past. I am not sure where this new phase of my riding is going to take me or how far I will go with this but it has already led to one big change...the switch from clippless back to plat form pedals.
To the non mountain biker this change might seem minor, but for someone that switch to clippless only a couple months after they started riding and have ridden clippless exclusively for the last 5 years this is a major change. No longer are my feet secured to the bike, no longer can I just deadman over things, no longer can I let the bike take me in to the air on a jump. I now have to take the bike into the air. I have to use correct form when bunny hoping over a log, I can't just pull me feet up to get the rear wheel up over the log. When I jump I have actively pull the bike up. When going through a rock garden I have to apply just enough force to keep my feet on the pedals while still staying light on the bike. All of these challenges this change has created for me. I know it is a step back, but I also know that it is going to move my riding two steps forward!
As always, I know I am going to have a blast on my bike...but I also want to get better. Progression is important to me, I feel like I have done that each season...and this one will be no different.
Shred on!
