Trials practice

Nice sunny day. Haven't been in the bike in more than a week. Saw an email about a group ride run by Nathan through the NRVBA. My wife rode with them the other week and said it was a lot of fun, so I figured I'd try to get out.

My back is a little better, but it's still soar. I probably shouldn't be mountain biking but just couldn't help it. I didn't do much, but it really wore me out. We climbed Old Farm then went down sidewinder to the difficult switchback.

I actually rode down it today. That makes let's see 3 times in my life. Then we practiced trying to climb it. This is a steep/rooted switchback. I've only seen one other person clean it climbing it. That was until today. Now I've seen two people clean it.

The only way to do it is to come to a complete stop and Trials your way through it.

Bicycle Trials is something that has always fascinated me from the very first mountain bike race I attended. Back then they had bicycle trials competitions at a lot of the races. The first XC race I ever entered had a trials competition before hand. I got to see some sponsored riders from Ibis.

The next day I tried to do it. Of course I started the absolute wrong way. And cinched down my toestraps super tight and tried to bounce. Once bounce. Then a while later, two bounces, then three. Basically all I could do was bounce around in one spot.

I wish wish, that someone had told me to try to learn with flat pedals and no clips.

At one point I could bounce sideways up steps. I never really learned how to go very far forward. That was years ago and haven't done much.

Till today, we tried to get up this switchback. Nathan and Chad were getting pretty far and then Nathan cleaned it. It was so awesome. His front wheel was just poised a few inches of the ground, setting down slowly and he inched is way up.

We hollered it up after that. Then we climbed back up and towards the top there are some log steps. We tried trials hopping up each one. Man that stuff just takes it out of me. Immediate redline. It's inspired me to mess around a little bit more.

When you train and ride XC I don't usually stop to mess around on stuff like I used to. It was fun.

But I'm tired. My upper body is tired just from riding. My back still isn't totally right, and I haven't been doing any upper body stuff in more than a week either. This ride really drove home how important that is for me to stay on top of.