This season has been a pretty lite one of riding for me. The combination of the incredible blessing that is my new son Conner and taking the leap into working for myself has proven to be very taxing on my time commitments. Therefore my regular rides got pushed out and I ended up only doing a ride on the weekends. And since I only got about one ride a week, I usually made it a good one. I was doing 15 - 25 mile loops where I rode from my house down to the trailhead, ride a good bit of singletrack then swing back around and come home.

Well the VA Derailer Series race at Peaks View Park, my home court, is coming up in about a month and I figured I would forego it this year since I just haven’t been putting the time in on the bike that I need to. However my lovely wife told me I should do it and gave me the go ahead to bug out in the evenings for training rides so I’ve been hitting the singletrack with my Monocog 29er (I’m planning on racing in the singlespeed class).

Now that I’m in training mode I’ve noticed a few things that I’ve lost in the last 7 months of very little riding…

First off, I’m not as out of it as I would think. Sure, I’m not in very good shape due to the lack of riding, however I’ve got enough skill on the bike now that I can often make up for it. I still remember in my early days, when I was in good shape, and I was unable to climb some of these ascents. Now I can do them without much trouble. I’m spent by the time I get to the top, but knowing how to climb efficiently makes such a huge difference.

Secondly, I’ve gotten soft. I’m noticing that I am a lot more timid as I work on increasing my speed on descents and such. I think this one is a combination of a couple things. My long, slow rides have gotten me out of practice of going fast. Also, when I first started riding I fell constantly. It was part of getting better and I knew that, so I constantly pushed my limits and felt the consequences of crashing, but I quickly got better. Now though, I have gotten to a point where I am good enough that I don’t have to fall as much, but that means I’m not pushing myself.

So I decided to start riding as much as possible with my hands not even touching the brakes. I trusted the 29er’s cornering ability and just held on. I started getting that adrenaline pumping again and it felt good. I only wiped one time, but I know I’m getting better again.

So I’ve got a few weeks to get my act together and get ready to do the race SS. I’ll post updates as they come…