So, I’ve not really properly for a while. I’ve been pretty busy. First off I was on holiday with the missus and then when I got back to work it was to a new shift and I’ve been getting my feet under the table again. Somewhere in between these two things I also had my second race which I will post about on a later date.
What I want to ramble on about today is the benefit I’ve found recently from sessioning trails. It’s not something I’d really done until after my first race and I found I was struggling with roots. So I went to a rooty and rocky little place called Healey Nab and did a few runs of it. I felt much more confident on rocks and roots by the end and strava was telling me I had got significantly quicker. This was actually prior to my tuition with Ed Oxley so I wasn’t really practicing skills more than I was practicing the actual trail if that makes sense.
Fast forward to my holiday in the Peak District. Yes of course I took my bike. The missus took hers as well though didn’t go out on it, too hilly for her liking…go figure. Anyway, we went for a walk behind our cottage that we had hired for the week. Part way up the sensible half of the relationship spots bike tracks and suggests I bring my bike up here. So starts the ritual that in the morning after breakfast while she goes for a bath I go out and do a few runs of this trail. What she’d found was one of the most perfect 0.4 miles of trail (0.6 when I moved a fallen bough off the trail on the last couple of days and followed the trail to its conclusion) I’ve ridden in a long time. It just seemed to have a little of everything in it.
1st off there was a lovely open area where the trail descended lightly but the terrain allowed you to pump it to gain speed regularly.
Then you’d be hard on the brakes into a quick chicane before heading down a steep slope punctuated by roots across it at all angles and a drop off on either side.
The slope becomes a proper knife edge and at the end is a tight gap between tree that you need to hit at an angle and unweight over a large root. 
From there you drop down rapidly towards a hair pin laden with rocks on its exit. There’s an alternate route down the side of the drop to the hair pin strewn with rocks and only a short distance to grab the anchors on at the bottom and turn back on track. I took this a couple of times but was much preferring to rattle down towards the hairpin avoiding the 3/4 buried rocks, in fact I used them as a braking marker before smoothly and firmly pinning the anchors on weight back and through my feet feeling the rear begin to slide a little and just modulating the lever to allow it to just roll, the new Shimano M675 are superb. Then twisting my hips and head into the corner and pedaling it out and putting the power down between two beautiful rocky outcrops avoiding the worst of the thick mud here.
You can see my braking marks.
Overlooking the exit from the hairpin
Out the hairpin through the outcrops and down the hill
Out the outcrop you fire and its down the steep hill. There’s occasional mostly buired rocks and roots to try and upset the bike but select your line well and they don’t cause any upset. One kink 2/3 of the way down requires some careful braking before hand as you’ll be smashing down at 37 mph. Then it’s as hard on the brakes to avoid smashing into the side of postman pats van as he exits the driveway to the cottage, yes that’s how close this trail was to the cottage.
May not look steep but it bloody is.
Sessioning this little gem of a trail made me feel like I was working on so many different facets of my riding; reading the trail, line choice, pumping the trail, weighting and unweighting at key points, hard braking, trailing the brakes to control a descent, keeping my chin up, high speed riding. So many things were tested. I utterly loved it and felt much better for it. I was actually sat at 2nd position for the trail as a whole on strava so I must have done something right.
This has led me recently to session a few other things as part of my riding. The Beast at Thetford Forest has been one. It’s got 3 routes down it and over the last few weeks I’ve done in excess of 40 runs down the three. I’ve definitely improved in certain areas especially as I’ve been using it to mostly practice my pumping of the trail and after reading a skills feature by Gee Atherton where he suggests not pedaling to improve the flow of your riding. I’m actually now doing that quicker than when I first rode the trails in Feb and was pedaling which shows some serious progress with which I’m seriously happy.
However, as much fun and as satisfying as it is… it does leave me a little cold in one area. There’s no sense of adventure and journey to it. At the end of having done the beast 21 times I actually felt a little flat. I didn’t feel like riding the whole of the trail centre though as in itself it doesn’t give much of a feeling of a journey and achievement the way way Llandegla and Gisburn do and besides the sandy trails are so dry that they are incredibly loose and on the way to the beast i nearly tucked the front several times. Sadly Norfolk does not have much in the way of mountains to go and get lost in. Some much longed for time back in the North West is called for and some bloody hills and a horizon full of features to ride to.
I can see why downhillers do it on their runs but I cant help feeling they’re missing out on the fun of an adventure at the same time. They’re merely going up and down the same few miles of trail. Maybe that’s why Enduro is taking off more and more….it’s like downhill in the wild but the necessity of going up the damn thing first. I love that, I love to feel I’ve earned my thrill the hard way and I love that it’s not the same thrill over and over.
So, sessioning; fun, useful, good phys, good for technique, rewarding in itself but for me ultimately only a tool.
trailtothetrail 