Damn, what was the lead up to that yard sale??
The short version of the story is that I ran out of talent at the wrong time.
I was doing a downhill race on a particularly short and violent course. There is a slow singletrack section uphill of the crash site. In practice, I was having difficulty finding speed - I didn't have any saddle time on that bike before the race, and it's a course that I ride once per year. Hitting the steep jump when exiting the woods wasn't any problem since I wasn't carrying any speed into it.
But in my first timed run, I blasted that slow section like there were free tacos at the finish line. I hit the jump way too fast, overshot the landing (or undershot the next transition, depending upon your perspective) and hucked to flat with my weight in all the wrong places.
Fortunately, I was wearing good gear, and got away with some cracked and separated ribs, and a nasty deep thigh bruise. I was able to finish the run, took the shuttle up for my 2nd run, finished 3rd-to-last, and then had a slightly miserable time a few hours later doing a 20-mile XC race. And this was the first day of vacation, so I got reminded of my stupidity for many rides to come over the next two weeks.
I'm sure there are several potential morals to this story, but I don't like any of them so I will have to learn my lesson some other time
Pretty awesome riding with your kids isn’t it? I have watched my girls transform into pretty solid mountain bikers the last few years, there isn’t anything better...
Man, it's been great - my oldest (who just turned 9) is riding with confidence, and can even keep up with some of my slower adult friends. He's going to be kicking my ass in a few years. The youngest (who just turned 5) moved from a tag-along bike to his own 20" ride this summer, and is already busting out 3-4 miles at a time (albeit with frequent breaks for water, food, and checking out whatever cool stuff is growing along the trail). He's a maniac who is going to be a monster once his body can keep up with whatever his brain is thinking.
So we're now getting out as a family, building good fitness habits, increasing mental toughness - I really couldn't be happier as a father.
