Where art thou confidence?

March 28th was the date of freedom.

Cheekily I rode to the doctors appointment on the Thursday morning to get the O.K. to cycle again. The doc said, first week light road riding, then the next week I can do more and try light mountain biking. The following week after that I can do the amount of road cycling that I was previously doing as well as a bit more intensive mountain biking, finally third week I should be able to ride the mountain biking normally.

Riding road I slipped straight back into the groove of things and feel like I did before the crash. The collar bone feels a little odd but nothing that bothers me. I can pull and lift through the shoulder so bumps and sprinting are fine.

I have ridden the mountain bike on the trails but I am not all there. It doesn’t help that there hasn’t been dry dirt out on the trails since I crashed but through corners and even down some simple descents, I feel shaky. Shaky isn’t good when you’re on the mountain bike. You need confidence to hit something to control what is happening.

Even today I was out on the trails with a friend and we were just rolling down a trail I have done a heap of times. Admittedly it wasn’t an easy trail since it’s aimed for downhillers. Never the less I could usually ride it all but today I felt as if I was going to hit the ground hard.

Prior to riding this track I went and had a look at where I crash or at least where I thought I had crashed. The way I remembered the crash didn’t fit the area where I crashed. This has me a little worried. Seeing where I crashed wasn’t anything spooky but riding down to it was weird and I felt vulnerable.

The plan for now is to ride more and more on the single tracks and build up my shoulder strength and confidence, not much strength was lost, but enough to make me feel weaker.  The confidence has taken a big hit though. The way I have learnt to get faster and improve is to do a lot of small steps to get to bigger steps, not giving it my all and then crash and spend another week… or month sitting on the sidelines.

There is no point in trying something ‘big’ in order to improve. I have seen too many crashes of inexperienced even experienced riders trying jumps or drop offs and eating so much dirt. Sure there is some crashes that are unavoidable by random variables but in reality if there is something you want to do, work up to it.

For a small tip I will use an example. If there is a jump, small gap or lip you want to get air off or jump over and you know there is a good chance that your skill level really isn’t appropriate then this is what you should do.

If you can’t roll it don’t do it. By ‘rolling it’ I mean if you can’t ride over the obstacle then don’t attempt it at high speed. Try smaller jumps or similar obstacles that will help you practice the skills you’d need to tackle your goal. Once you can do those smaller things and you feel as if you know what will happen when you hit your desired challenge then grab a couple of mates and go try it.

I would advise body armour and obviously a helmet. It’s really important to have friends because if you do hurt your self you don’t want to be dragging your self to the road alone.

Determination or Caution

Since the crash things in my day to day life has changed like my my priorities and my focus. My days have slowed down, the things I would normally do I can’t, or they take a lot longer to complete. Things as little as putting on clothes to making breakfast, doing errands and trying to type up blog posts with one hand.

Number one priority is to heal fast and let my clavicle heal well without any set backs. At the same time I am eager and focussed to keep fit and maintain my previous months of base training. I have been taking it easy this first week doing only an hour of wind training each day which I break up into two, thirty minute session for mental purposes and comfort. With the sling and doctors orders I am not allowed to lean forward meaning I have to sit up right and spin – my butt gets sore and numb.

Wind training is quite hard to get motivated for, due to the fact I have only recently had surgery and I want to play on the cautious side of the situation I am in. Not only that I feel the need to play it safe, I am also on medication that can make me feel quite woozy and not a 100% trough out the day. But I feel as if I sit on that bike and chip away at it my mind will get stronger and as I heal and get better I will have a stronger mind to train with.

I do seriously miss clipping in to my bike and rolling out into the world and have that wind flow past my ears. At least I have more time writing up blog posts of rides I have done and have not gotten around to typing up.

Deadly Waterbars

On Wednesday I was out riding around Gap Creek in the morning with a couple of mates. They are both fairly skilled with their mountain biking handling except one, who has only really been doing it on and off for a year or so, but we were out for a fun relaxed ride.

We had been riding for about a hour. Riding up and over Mt.Cootha and back up past the Channel 9 broadcasting station. The plan was to go back down in the reserve and do all the single trail that surrounds the park. Rolling down the fire trail which I think is known as Three Sisters, this is a fire trail that leads you down past a turn off that leads you down to a road which takes you back to The Gap. It also takes you to the top of a fun trail called Dingo which I think would be classed as an advanced track due to early tricky rock garden climbs. 

My friends and I started to descend and I was just mucking about drifting my back wheel all over the place trying to kick up dust, and in general be and idiot. Since my mates were coming down close behind me I stopped fooling about and started to descend fast. That’s when I heard a voice and I looked back see my mate almost cartwheeling down the fire trail heading towards a tree. I had already turned around and started to ride back to him as he was collecting him self on the ground.

Bad news, he had a huge gash in his leg and pretty scratched up hip. He was lucky not to do any more damage then he had. He couldn’t really move because he was pinching the skin together. I had to ride down Dingo and drove up to the road where it meets the fire road he was on. I had a first aid kit but I had rung a surgery and they were happy to clean up his wound which was a relief.

What had happened is that he was descending just fine but he was approaching one of the waterbars in the road and he slammed on his front breaks to slow him down. As he was doing that his rear wheel bucked while it was going over the water bar sending him flying over the handle bars.

Just a bit of riding advice with waterbars. They are a fantastic and simple way to keep fire roads where they should be. Allowing the water to run over them and down in the bush. A natural gutter. They are also turn a boring fire trail in one where you can jump off the water bars or even pump your bike down over the other side increasing your speed. But if you’re a beginner or don’t fancy on jumping them and want to enjoy descending this is what I can advice you to do.

• Weight over your back wheel (This doesn’t mean standing up on your pedals over your seat, I mean stretching your arms out and getting your weight over that wheel)
• On approach to the water bar, try to lose all your speed before you get to it
• If you do panic just use the back break, this won’t send your weight flying forward
• Gently squeeze your breaks (also known as to “feather” your breaks) on and off to maintain your speed properly, if you slam them on it will give you less traction and control.

My mate also managed to dent his frame and destroy his break leavers!