Mishaps and more

Wednesday, September 9, 2009
I'm now parking at the Connolly center (1/2 mile from the office); thus when I bring my bike to work, I ride to the office. In a rush to get out the door and make it to Tokul East by 6:00pm, I left my helmet in my office. I didn't realize I didn't have my helmet until I was suited up and ready to ride. I was really early (no traffic) so I called Ann to see if they could bring an extra helmet. They graciously drove back to Turtle Bob's house and got me a helmet. It only cost them 15 minutes. Thus, they got to Tokul East about 6:15pm and we started riding at 6:30pm. I was acutely aware that sunset was at 7:33pm (I looked it up on the i-phone...since I had so much extra time to hangout). We got about 2/3 of the way to last frontier at 7:15pm. I told Ann I didn't think we could make it down last frontier before we ran out of light. I had a headlight with me but no one had mount on their helmet or bike. So we decided to take an exit trail back to the Snoqualmie Valley Trail and leave Last Frontier for another day. As we entered the exit trail, we all realized there was barely enough light in the woods to see the trail. I followed Ann, and she graciously led the way down many drops! It was a fun descent but definitely challenging due to the lack of light. We made it to the Snoqualmie Valley Trail at 7:36pm. We were out for 1 hour and rode for 45 minutes. 35 minutes was climbing. It was a fun ride, and if left me feeling really good.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009
I signed up for Cycle U for fall quarter. I've been riding freeride and racing this season, but I haven't been pedaling a bike much. So my skills rock but my fitness sucks. I think Cycle U will be good for me (if it doesn't kill me)!

Tonight is Tokul East. This will be my second time there. I'm hoping I can ride the steep switch backs...which is something I need to get better at.

September 5, 6 and 7
I had a great time riding at Whistler over labor day weekend. I had great friends to ride with and wonderful trails to ride. I worked on my drops. I am losing my pedals, so I need to figure that out. My suspension on the bike was a little soft, so I've dropped the bike off at fluid ride to get heavier springs put in.

Day one: concentrated on berms (looking around the corners, inside knee pointed towards the inside, outside chicken elbow, outside hip shifted far to outside). It was very fun. Also worked on high speed. All in the Mud and rain

Day two: concentrated on drops and jumps. I did really well. Finished by riding with Evil Bob, Ann and Mitch. I crashed twice. Once on a steep switchback on Angry Pirate and once on Devils Club. We shouldn't have been on Devil's club - very steep wood structures that were slick due to the rain.

Day three: took a run on B-line and one on Crank-it-up. Then called it a day.

Thursday, September 3, 2009
Freeride Thursday. Jumps in Snoqualmie. I wished I had my smaller bike. None the less I got some good air. My last run was very smooth and landed on the backside of the table top.

August 27, 2009
Freeride Thursday
cornering. Had a great cornering class on the big bike. Finished by riding K-line and riding the wood wall. Quite the thrill.


August 21, 22, 23, 2009
Five (Ann Davis, Mitch Davis, Derek DeYoung Cheyenne Smith, and Diana Miller) TAI racers headed to Port Angeles to go camping (oh yea, we went to PA for the Fluid Cup # 5 – camping was just one of the perks!). The weather promised mild temperatures (mid 60’s) with no rain in sight, which was a pleasant blessing on an August race weekend. On Friday (after setting up camp), Ann graciously towed me down the beginner course for the first couple of runs, giving me a good feel for the course. This was the first time I had ridden the whole PA course, and it showed my utter foolishness or profound trust in Ann not to lead me astray. Ann and I have similar riding skills so trust her I did. By the end of the day Friday, I was feeling comfortable on the course. If I hadn’t followed Ann down the course, I’m sure I would have had to get off the bike and take a look at a couple of sections. Friday, after Ann and I finished our pre-rides, we took a quick run (I walked a couple of sections) down the Sport course, at which time I was thrilled to be a beginner racer! It was fun to see the jump in difficulty from beginner to sport. After our pre-rides (and after some fun socializing with other racers) we headed back to our campsite to finish setting up the campsite and to enjoy a well-deserved meal of marinated flank steak, homemade scalloped potatoes, and a wedge salad with blue cheese and balsamic vinegar dressing. I never sleep well, the first night in a new place and that was the case for this trip. I managed about 5 hours of sleep before I got up to start the coffee and breakfast of sausage, eggs and hash browns.

The first run of the second day of pre-rides (Saturday) I was feeling really good about the course and was beginning to enjoy riding it. All of the team members seemed to be pleased with their day of riding. We finished the day with Ann’s Tator tot casserole and apple crumble cooked in Dutch ovens over the campfire. The camp ground wasn’t as quiet as it was the night before, a noisy group of campers called it a night around 4:15 am; thus a couple of us were lacking sleep.

The race results are posted at http://skibowl.com/index.php?page=race-results