So Saturday was supposed to be another Beech race. Going into the end of the week, I just wasn’t feeling the race. Its kind of odd, but with so many races available to the SE now the scene is kind of diluting its self. Its about a 2.5 hr drive for me and I had procrastinated heading over until Saturday morning. I was having a great evening with Wyatt and Meghann and I just wasn’t that into going. Then I got word that the track didn’t look to great and I waffled even more. But late in the night I decided to go. I love racing DH and it was just another day trip. Then around 4am I got a text from my mother that my dad was in the hospital with an elevated potassium level. So it seemed all signed pointed to not going. Later in the afternoon I did a 95 mile ride from the house on the 530xc-w. See post below. Anyway, I’m glad I didn’t go to the race. Plus I can’t keep going to every race for the rest of my life. It was good to miss one.
So then on Sunday I convinced myself to go a hare scramble down near the Ocoee. Late in the evening I went over to Mark’s house to help him fix his front brake which had turned into quite a mystery. We worked on that thing for hours, bought new tools, and coated the floor in DOT 3 brake fluid until about 9pm. Just when all hope was lost, we go it bled. It seemed so hopeless that I declared if we could get it fixed, I would stay local and ride with Mark, Ben and Jay. So again I skipped a race and stayed close to ride our awesome terrain with good friends. It was another good choice. Mark has some footage posted at Ride Made.
Later in the afternoon I headed over to Windrock to grab a few shuttles with Joey and Buddy. It was hot, but we kept a pretty quick pace on turning around. I seem to be a worse rider in training, but I keep having some of my best results to date. There are a lot of things going into that equation. Part of it is I don’t think the competition is as deep as it was a couple of years ago. Part of it is I think I am getting to another plateau. I think I can go faster but I can’t keep together at that pace until I race and slow it down a bit. I always go harder in practice/training that race runs. Anyway, I did a couple runs, saved a pretty good potential crash, and had fun. Looking forward to Saturday’s big crew.
