About a week ago I was hanging out on Pugski, reading the Mountain Biking 2018 stoke thread, feeling guilty for leaving my bike in the shed. I mean, the bike wants to get out and get dirty, right?
Then, out of the blue, I get a text from a friend. "Hey, you should come to the Katerina Nash Clinic with me on Sunday."
Its been a very long time since I've gotten excited, really excited about riding my mountain bike, and I wasn't sure if there was anything that could ignite that old fire I once had.
I got my bike out, checked the air in the tires and invited a couple other women to come with me.
It turns out, The Tahoe Mountain Bike Girls, formerly known as the Luna Chicks, host this annual clinic day every year. Since Katerina is sponsored by Clif, and Clif also supports the Tahoe Mountain Bike Girls, Katerina comes to this event and holds one of the clinic sessions.
The day started with grouping. We spent time assessing ability and timidity, then hit a mellow trail to warm up. One of the first things I noted was that this trail system, which I have never ridden before, has some incredibly fun flow for a variety of skills from intermediate to expert. Many of the blue trails reminded me of some of the trails that got me excited about mountain biking 15 years ago. This is the kind of terrain that I had hoped to find but kept finding myself on highly technical stuff that didn't help my confidence.
The first section that we rode included a fairly interesting rock garden with multiple skill levels going through it depending on the line you picked. I used to ride rock gardens all the time, but have avoided them since moving to Tahoe because they're more jagged and (to me) scary. The instructor reinforced skills that I knew but had let slip away, like momentum, body position, loose arms and look ahead. I listened to the voice in my head that says, "You got this!"
The first line I picked was mellow, but when we looped back around I took the most aggressive line and freaking loved it!
(sorry, no pictures of the rock garden)
After the rocks, we headed to the parking lot to practice "load and explode", getting the wheel up and over logs, rocks and other such opportunities that we may find on the trail.
This was an interesting task for the one lady who had a rigid fork/hard tail Gary Fisher, but she did great
This was a fun little drill to get in the habit of timing it well.
After this, we rode some super fun, flowy trails to get to the warming hut area where they had some skills things set up.
Imagine my disappointment when I realized that the skinnies class is about riding a skinny, not being skinny
Skill #3- drops. Kristen, a down hill mt bike instructor from Northstar lead this. I've had the good fortune of spending time with her from my days. She's awesome!
I did the little drop but decided that I prefer air in my tires, not under my tires, at least for now. I'll work on that
We got to ride the fun flowy trail back to the Cinnamon Twist Trail, which is where we met up with Katerina for our cornering session.
What a treat this is.
We rode the Cinnamon Twist loop twice with a few breaks to get some input from Katerina and watch her demonstrate.
The day ended with refreshing drinks and chat about the take aways of the day.
My take away is this; mountain biking is a freaking blast if you find the right terrain, the right riding buddies and the right mindset.
Its been far too long since I've been stoked to ride my bike. This clinic along with the dropper post that I had installed a few weeks ago gave it back to me.
I arrived home tired, dirty and excited, so much so that I think I drove Phil nuts talking about the day.
I woke up Monday eager to ride again, which hasn't happened in a very long time.
Phil and I loaded up my bike, went to the shop to get a demo bike for him, and hit the trails.
I was hoping to ride again today but my sit bones need a rest.
Thanks for reading.
Then, out of the blue, I get a text from a friend. "Hey, you should come to the Katerina Nash Clinic with me on Sunday."
Its been a very long time since I've gotten excited, really excited about riding my mountain bike, and I wasn't sure if there was anything that could ignite that old fire I once had.
I got my bike out, checked the air in the tires and invited a couple other women to come with me.
It turns out, The Tahoe Mountain Bike Girls, formerly known as the Luna Chicks, host this annual clinic day every year. Since Katerina is sponsored by Clif, and Clif also supports the Tahoe Mountain Bike Girls, Katerina comes to this event and holds one of the clinic sessions.
The day started with grouping. We spent time assessing ability and timidity, then hit a mellow trail to warm up. One of the first things I noted was that this trail system, which I have never ridden before, has some incredibly fun flow for a variety of skills from intermediate to expert. Many of the blue trails reminded me of some of the trails that got me excited about mountain biking 15 years ago. This is the kind of terrain that I had hoped to find but kept finding myself on highly technical stuff that didn't help my confidence.
The first section that we rode included a fairly interesting rock garden with multiple skill levels going through it depending on the line you picked. I used to ride rock gardens all the time, but have avoided them since moving to Tahoe because they're more jagged and (to me) scary. The instructor reinforced skills that I knew but had let slip away, like momentum, body position, loose arms and look ahead. I listened to the voice in my head that says, "You got this!"
The first line I picked was mellow, but when we looped back around I took the most aggressive line and freaking loved it!
(sorry, no pictures of the rock garden)
After the rocks, we headed to the parking lot to practice "load and explode", getting the wheel up and over logs, rocks and other such opportunities that we may find on the trail.
This was an interesting task for the one lady who had a rigid fork/hard tail Gary Fisher, but she did great
This was a fun little drill to get in the habit of timing it well.
After this, we rode some super fun, flowy trails to get to the warming hut area where they had some skills things set up.
Imagine my disappointment when I realized that the skinnies class is about riding a skinny, not being skinny
Skill #3- drops. Kristen, a down hill mt bike instructor from Northstar lead this. I've had the good fortune of spending time with her from my days. She's awesome!
I did the little drop but decided that I prefer air in my tires, not under my tires, at least for now. I'll work on that
We got to ride the fun flowy trail back to the Cinnamon Twist Trail, which is where we met up with Katerina for our cornering session.
What a treat this is.
We rode the Cinnamon Twist loop twice with a few breaks to get some input from Katerina and watch her demonstrate.
The day ended with refreshing drinks and chat about the take aways of the day.
My take away is this; mountain biking is a freaking blast if you find the right terrain, the right riding buddies and the right mindset.
Its been far too long since I've been stoked to ride my bike. This clinic along with the dropper post that I had installed a few weeks ago gave it back to me.
I arrived home tired, dirty and excited, so much so that I think I drove Phil nuts talking about the day.
I woke up Monday eager to ride again, which hasn't happened in a very long time.
Phil and I loaded up my bike, went to the shop to get a demo bike for him, and hit the trails.
I was hoping to ride again today but my sit bones need a rest.
Thanks for reading.
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