Sunday, Kevin and I had plans to drive down to the FOMBA trails in Manchester, NH for some mountain biking and running.We knew these trails would be challenging for me to ride, but I was up for the task. The plan was that I would ride some of the less challenging trails with him and then run the more difficult ones while he rode. But Sunday morning presented us with the very sad and difficult situation of having Xena, one of Kevin's beloved cats, pass away. So neither of us were up for a trip to FOMBA. In the afternoon we decided to get the bikes out and take a ride locally. It was just what we needed. There is something about mountain biking that completely absorbs all my attention. I can go out on the trails and run or hike, and my mind will wander. Traveling on foot allows me to mull things over and think things through. Mountain biking is different in that it completely grabs every bit of my attention while I am doing it. If my mind starts to wander while I am biking, I usually end up getting hurt. My mind has learned not to wander!
The day was beautiful with sunshine and perfect temperatures for biking. It didn't take long before we both felt happy and started to enjoy the ride. We rode the single track and then went through the fairgrounds and onto the snow mobile trails for a while. I am trying to improve on some of my skills, so I like to goof around lifting my wheels over things I could easily roll right over and trying to do little hops where I lift both wheels off the ground at once. At one point I tried to do a bunny hop over a puddle and landed in the middle of it, giving Kevin the idea of splashing me in the same manner. Kevin can do a heck of a hop on the bike so I got a face full of water from that. He felt a little bad about splashing me more thoroughly than he had planned, but it just made me laugh.
I was also trying to learn how to jump off of things and I said out loud that I needed to find some sort of ramp to practice on, since jumping off of rocks or little bumps in the trails wasn't doing it for me. I babble away constantly when I am absorbed by something I am doing. I really don't know I'm doing it or that anyone is listening to what I'm saying. So later,when Kevin led me behind the elementary school and started dragging boards around, it took me a few seconds to recognize a jump ramp was being constructed. I immediately went into little kid mode. Let me tell you, jumping off that ramp on the bike was FUN!!!
This morning will be running and lifting. The sun is out, but it is cold! So I'm waiting a bit before I head out. I am tempted to run a little farther today than I have been running. But at the same time, this low mileage and every other day running is really working for me. I feel very rested and I am excited about my runs! I want to get back to 100%, both mentally and physically. I think I'm already there mentally, but physically I could use another month of recovery from a difficult season of training and racing and injuries. I think discipline works both ways for a lot of us. We have to be able to push ourselves when it is called for, but we also have to be able to hold ourselves back when it's in our best interest.
I have to say, that i'm really impressed with Laurels advancing technical skills on the bike. It all comes so naturally for her, she makes it look easy. She was rolling over this same two foot jump from the video, with really great tecnique and really having a lot of fun with it. I know MTB brings the kid out of me and would have to say its keeping me young in spirit. I'm always impressed with the skill and speed of older mtb riders. Those young ones have got nothing on us, exept that they might not be as fearful about landing on there heads. I friends that are sixty years plus and there still finding new ways to have fun on the mt bike. - KC
ReplyDelete