…. ride like a total sack of spuds, but just can’t work out why?

Last weekend i was a lazer guides downhill cake seeking missile. Today i have been randomly bouncing off trees like an idiot. Grrrr ;-(

When I go out riding on a Friday night I’m so knackerred after work it’s dangerous,lack of concentration and tiredness can be deadly especially when you fall asleep half way through a drop off,I’ve taken to riding on a Monday night now I’m much more with it and have a better ride.

Yep. Some days it just “clicks”. The rest of the time I ride like a gimp.

All the time, riding on my own I am Steve Peat (in my mind anyway) but put me next to anyone with an ounce of skill I look like an unco-ordinated sack of poop.

Me too. Never really understood why, most of the time I ride OK, but some days I just can’t get into the right mindset. I know that all I need is to relax but that just seems to make me more tense. Then I crash, give up and go home!

I’m off to The White Room in a couple of weeks, and after my big Welsh MTB trip last weekend, where i managed not to fall off or otherwise break myself, i have been consciously going slow this week on the bike. Perhaps too slow, as i seem to be struggling with basic stuff…….

I’ve just come out of that stage of consciously going slow,worrying about cornering and iff I’m going to come off and all grown up sensible stuff like that,but over the last few weeks I’ve loosened up,done some stupid things,come off,hurt myself(not badly) and generally used my bike to do what It’s meant to do,think we all go through it.

Yep. Sometimes it just doesn’t happen. Used to get frustrated but now just think to myself it’s just one of those days. But then there are some days I feel like I’m terrible at my job or that big poo I think is coming turns out to be an unsatisfying little poo. Rough with the smooth fella.

I don’t just have rubbish days, I have rubbish runs on the same day.
Doing an uplift of the Cwmcarn DH, I slowly get faster and more confident as the day goes on, then I do a run where I’m lucky to reach the bottom in one piece. Everything goes wrong and I just lose concentration and put together the most untidy run possible.
Go figure?

Yup, Everyone has them days I think. Just some days I feel more like a pinball rattling down the trail that an actual “mountain biker”. I will go with the being tired option. After a few days at work, thinking and physical activity isn’t on my mind really.

Yeah happens to me too – imagine you changed tyres or some other component on one of those days though, you’d be blaming whatever you’d changed…

I’m not usually that bad but I have definite slow days. Had one on day 2 of the EWS which kind of sucked, with hindsight, wasn’t a single race run I could call up to scratch. But I guess it’s just the inevitable flipside of those days when you feel a bit above your game

Last Sunday was mine – did Blacka/Houndkirk/Stanage/Burbage and rode like an arthritic monkey on acid.

Previous to that I’d been in the zone – hoping my next ride and I’ll be back on it.

I have days where I find myself riding with an element of hesitation and that seems to be a recipe for disaster, especially when combined with those dreaded bike-magnet rocks

Yep. Tuesday night: loads of flow, popping of everything I could, nailing tricky sections 1st time. Thursday night (same trail, but dry this time): nothing, bike clattering off every obstacle in sight, feeling like a lump, no flow, no speed, dragged myself round by pure will power.

Yep, turned round and gone home some days. Just no fun at all, more likely yo hurt myself really

Yes, I do often. Same on the motorbike, I can be as smooth as anything around corners and feeling good and next morning I feel like I am a learner again.

Yep, those days can be immensely frustrating.

Two of the last 3 races i’ve done have been shockers, but they sandwiched another which was a good result. The latter shocker I was lucky to walk away from a nasty crash with a sore shoulder & some impressive bruising.

few more coming up, and a couple of riding holidays – hopefully i’ve had my fill of squid days for the next couple of months.