Blowing Wind, Flying Gravel, and Dirt Jumping

Well, this has been one of the windier winters I have ever experienced here in Boulder. It has also been the warmest winters that I remember. I guess this provides us with mixed blessings! I think that the balmy warm weather we have been having has been the culprit of a lot of the wind we have also been having. Hmmmm.... So, it pretty much goes like this: make plans to go dirt jumping tomorrow, go to be with crazy wind, wake up and hope it's not windy. If it's not, yea!!! It's a good day, and we'll go play. If it is, we complain a bit and then try to find something else to do to keep our ADHD selves entertained!

On Sunday, it was a windy (I mean REALLY windy) day so we had to find something else to do. TJ called up and wanted to do a road ride up to NCAR. Well, I have never been a huge fan of riding up hills, but I know that I need to get my butt in shape, so I agreed. TJ showed up at my house with the best road riding style I have ever seen! He had his Yeti DJer decked out with slick tires with the seat raised higher than I thought was possible. Although I think he was secretly wearing spandex under his baggy shorts, no one would be able to tell! The setup was topped off with his burly DH shoes. NICE! I put on my "I pretend to be a roadie every once in awhile" outfit, grabbed the road bike, and we were off. The ride up to NCAR is less than two miles from my house, but it is all uphill. It isn't very steep mind you, but I am very out of shape, and it hurt! TJ easily kicked my butt up the hill as we battled the horrendous headwind coming out of the mountains. The descent with a tail wind was a lot of fun, though! That didn't take us very long, so we decided to go on a Boulder Creek Path adventure. Normally, I don't spend too much time riding on the path, as I think it is one of the more dangerous rides in Boulder County! I figured not too many people (roller bladers, dog walkers, lollygaggers of every other sort) would be out since it was so windy, though. The path provides a little bit of shelter from the wind for at least some of the time. We ran into super Pro Trek rider, Nick Martin, who was, I'm sure, completely surprised to see the DH kids out training in the wind! All in all, it made for a fun little adventure even though we got pelted with pea sized gravel on the way home!

Saturday was also windy, but I didn't care too much. I decided to head up to the indoor BMX race at the Ranch in Loveland, CO. I have never done a BMX race before, so I was psyched to get in some good gate starts and racing. I had to wake up my fast twitch muscles! They've been taking a cat nap since mid October, I think! The course was nice and smooth with a huge 40 foot berm after the first straight. It looked like it would be a lot of fun to race on! I was pretty pleased with my gate starts, and I even stepped it up and jumped the first double on the course. I spent a bit of time planning my passing strategies in the first berm, but when it came to racing time, I didn't need to worry about it! Getting a good gate start and being able to jump even the small double gave me all of the advantage that I needed to get ahead of the rest of the women's cruiser field. I was please that no matter which of the three different gates I had at the start, I was always able to charge into the first berm well in the lead! It was a lot of fun winning a race again! I think I would need to race the Pro/Am field to not be off the front, and in that field, I'd pretty much be off the back in the first 2 seconds of the race!!! There is one more race up there next month, so we'll see if I head up for that or not.

Like the out of order recap of the past couple of days? Yesterday wasn't too windy, so Lisa and I headed over to the CU Research Park where some folks have been building some nice jumps and good cornering lines! We warmed up a bit and then planned to hit one of the doubles that didn't look too daunting. Lisa hit it perfectly the first time (may I remind you that her hand is still officially broken until she goes to the Dr. to get cleared to ride next week!!), and I did my typical clear the jump but case it with the rear wheel because I am still learning the finer points (ok, the basics!) of dirt jumping. We did this jump for a little while until Lisa decided I really needed a lesson in how to get my front end back down to finish up the jump. We moved over to a different area of this fun dirt playground and she gave me a lesson in bunny hopping to a transition and working on flat corners. At the bottom of our bunny hop transition was a double that was bigger than anything else I had ever hit before. After a couple of tiring laps, I looked up and Lisa had hit the jump as if it was nothing! Smooth like butter! I am so psyched for her that she has been riding so smoothly with such consistent skills! She has been off of the bike for a LONG time, but hasn't forgotten anything she already knew about riding her bike! After looking at the jump for a little bit and with some encouragement from Lisa, I decided to give it a go. I followed Lisa into the jump to know how much speed to have, and even though it wasn't pretty, I cleared it without casing the top of it. It was such an awesome feeling!! I LOVE dirt jumping. I did the jump a couple more times, really trying to focus on getting my front end back down and developing the flowing rhythm that makes dirt jumping so beautiful! It's coming together more and more each time I jump. I am very excited! Mostly I am excited that Lisa is back out riding!! We have so much fun riding together! The instruction and the encouragement she has given me over the past couple of months has been an invaluable asset to my riding!