~ young grasshopper ~

In anticipation of my upcoming mountain bike race, I took advantage of the warm weather this weekend and practiced riding the race course three times - - on Friday and Sunday with Josh, and Saturday with another female mountain biker. While I am not exactly in top riding form, what with all of the not-biking I've been doing, I managed to greatly impress myself this weekend - - primarily in the way of taking in a deep breath and riding those sections of the course that caused me to hesitate out of fear. Those shots above depict exactly that - - sections that I had to work up some guts to ride. Naturally, the photos don't do justice to the actual trail conditions - - I felt as though I was surmounting one ginormous challenge after another.

The first two photos are essentially the same. They show me riding a part of the trail that was very sandy, somewhat steepish, with a tight downhill swooping turn to the left. I took in a number of deep breaths in an attempt to get the guts to ride this - - what I continue to learn after successfully riding obstacles that make me hesitate is that most of the time these obstacles look worse on the approach than they actually are. I hiked myself back up to the top of this part of the trail several times to try and try again - - and as I was finally riding down the length of the trail, I had to scream because I was so excited that the trail was FUN and not horrid and scary. Imagine that! Something that appeared terrifying was loads of FUN!

The third photo depicts me overcoming one of my biggest fears - - drop offs. This particular one begins with a little uphill jaunt over some boulders and then a few step-steps down, all the while with the trail sloping towards the drop off. I successfully took in deep breaths and rode it three times, having fun each time, feeling very accomplished - - though, the deep breath was still very necessary even on the third time.

The fourth photo probably doesn't look like anything. And it's not, really. It's simply the epitome of a scary-looking approach that turns into no big deal to ride. What it was, was a steepish downhill with a sloping trail with lots of loose stuff on the top. But what it really was, was a really fun section leading into a superfast awesome fun downhill.

Anyway, the full course is 10.5 miles and I felt pretty good riding all of it this weekend. I've still got a few more weekends to practice before the race. Speaking of the race, I have absolutely no idea what to expect out of myself. My athletic competition history is virtually none. Though, in middle school, I was on a volleyball team - - we didn't win a single game, so I have a lot of experience being a good loser. Actually, what I gleaned from that experience was to not take athletic competition seriously. So this race, I'm doing it as a goal for myself - - but I have no idea what my attitude will be during the race. Anyway, this year I'm hoping to jump up to the next skill level of biking, and I feel that so far I've done a splendid job of that.

In other news, a photo of my Textured Tunic - - of which I am very fond. I've worn it several times and I love the way that it hangs, I love the feeling of the cotton, and I find it simply attractive.

Then, one of my current projects: Iceland. Here's the start of the sleeve. The yarn is surprisingly easy to work with, despite some reviews that it tends to split, and it is quite soft. I also like the color a lot. The leafy pattern is remarkably userfriendly, even though its a 20 row lace pattern. I began the Iceland about four days ago, so it appears to be a relatively quick knit. Of course, by yesterday, I was needing some good ol' stockinette to relax me away from the lace. So I began another top-down raglan...it will be very similar to the Tunic above, but I'm working it in some fine alpaca and will incorporate some cabling.

Posted by jennifer at 7:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)