For me this was an epic ride and I was really really really really pleased with how it went.

It was tough, the ride up through Transient was in places well beyond what I was accustomed to, and it was also much steeper than anything I’d encountered so far.

I did feel good enough to continue and decided to zip up to Windmill via Sawmill and the Fenceline.

Initially I thought the trail was miscatagorised as Green, it was so easy. By about three quarters I was hoping for a fast and merciful death – it was steep and relentless. I think I coped better then I had on Transient, but I was getting really fatigued.

I rested and the top, ate, and chatted with some nice folks.

After plucking up my courage I started the descent on Carparts. It was challenging and scary for sure, but wow is was a LOT of fun.

I was super stoked at how it went, and I am really looking forward to getting back up there.

Fabulous ride, the second time down the Lazy Fern felt incredible – I was flying and flowing and really enjoying it. I had my usual nemesis corner, but I got around it awkwardly and tensely!

Lessions:

1. You need food: a big brekkie helped
2. You need rest: resting after the second ride up made an enormous difference to the second ride down to the carpark. I stopped for about 5 minutes and did nothing, it made more difference than I could imagine
3. Shifting weight in corners: while my weight is back, and I’m on the pedals, I need to shift my weight a little more to help the bike turn. I did this by mistake and it made the switchback much easier – I need to practice to replicate my mistake.
4. You don’t always need to give way immediately: on my flying lap down the hill, a chap came up behind me near the end – I was only a few hundred metres from the end, and for some reason I pulled over. It was a mistake. I waiting for nearly two minutes as he was clearly the fastest in the group, and the others were very slow, slower than me.
5. Put yourself first (sometimes): by pulling over, I ruined what would have been a sub-seven minute (maybe even close to a 6 minute descent), and it upset me for a part of my drive home until I reflected on the good stuff. I was seriously pissed off with myself – why not hold the guy up by a few seconds on the way down and allow myself a personal best?
6. Focus on the positive: I had what for me what was an incredible ride, with a fantastic final run. I loved it and for a short time allowed a mistake to be the only thing I thought about – overshadowing the awesomeness I had just experienced.

Once again the a couple of loops of Koru, Magic Carpet, Big Tom’s Wheelie, and Lazy Fern. I hadn’t really eaten enough, so the first loop up was good, but I felt I was struggling a little on the second loop up.

I still managed a faster time on the second way up, even though I cruised behind some slower folks for a while, around 13 minutes to the top of Koru.

There were some interesting personalities on the trial, some friendly, and some very gruff and terse – what is it with some 50-60 year old men on flash bikes that makes them so miserable and unfriendly?

It was a fun ride overall, I noticed my cornering on the way down was much improved, although I am still extremely tense on some of the corners.

A quick Koru/Magic Carpet/Lazy Fern loop. It was my fastest time down the Lazy Fern, and I was starting to manage the corners a lot better. There is still one, the biggest and widest one, that I am still really struggling with.

A great ride!

After a hiatus and lots of working from home it was fabulous to ride down to work today.

I needed to get home before lunch and riding up in the midday traffic was lovely as it was so much quieter than the late afternoon traffic.

It was so great to be back on the trail today. After a break for to a wicked head cold it was surprising how easy it was too get back into it.

The first ride up felt super. I realized I wasn’t looking far enough ahead, and worked on it. It made a big difference and helped my performance dramatically.

I had a fun although relatively slow ride down the hill this morning.

On the way up I pushed myself a little again, and to my surprise my time was 9.20. I didn’t dream of that, and I now think that a sub-nine minute time is possible for me.

It’s been great getting away a little earlier and not really needing the lights to see in the morning. It was a fast and fun zip down the hill.

Coming up was great too, my fastest time by a couple of seconds. There was a rider ahead of me that I used to attempt to focus on, and it did push a little harder. The first part of the hill was slower than usual, but the top half was a lot faster. Nice ride!

Fantastic ride for 2.5 hours. I had a VERY sore butt by the end.

I got unlucky with the wind, I rode into it in both directions. I got to a point close to the end where I was getting concerned I was going to run out of energy and be unable to finish. It worked out just fine though, and I felt pretty good.

The other lessons were:

15 minutes further equals 30 mins in total. I knew it but it threw me.

I am still not confident. More riding required.

Apparently I got up to 58km/hr on the way down the hill, I find that quite hard to believe. Nothing very notable though.

The way up was OK, the speedo again proving very helpful. Just over 10 minutes up the hill which I was pretty happy with.