Nerves of cotton wool - part 2

I can see this becoming a Blog Theme for me.

So how did I get on at the weekend?

I've done a blog about my practise, but from the nerves perspective.  Girl did good!

• I did wake up in the early hours but fell back to sleep until the alarm got me up!
• I did rush to the loo but that might have been because of the large can of relentless I drank on the way to the forest of dean!  

How did I get on once riding;

Well, started off on an easy section to get me relaxed and my muscles warmed up.  Once relaxed I hit the main trail and loved it.

I had 2 moments of apprehension, one about doing the drop off the forestry road which I didn't understand as I've ridden steeper.   This was me putting pressure on myself about what was on the track further down as I'd not walked it.  Once ridden I was fine about it.

The other moment was at some root steps that looked a lot worst than they rode.  Committing to a line and trusting the bike are issues I am starting to get over.  Having a few people around watching took away my option of wimping out so I had to man up an ride the roots, and did. 

Now I know these roots are nothing compared to other DH tracks, but for me it was a massive step, last year I would never of even considered them a ridable line. 

Now as I'm starting to ride the more technical stuff, my speed is picking up on the less technical bits of track and as a result it means I have to concentrate more and look further ahead to give myself time to prepare.

I've put last Sundays bad ride behind me, we all have bad days, not dwelling on them is the best advice I can give to anyone.  Sunday was a nice no pressure day just me and Darrel playing on our bikes.  There is no-way the 27th January will be like this, race day with an audience who want to see crashes!

I'm sure there will be more posts on nerves as I venture away from the Forest of Dean to try other DH tracks, and in June there's Morzine.