Missing link 2

This is the next part of my missing month, where I was having too much fun to write my blogs, this one covers the EWS weekend that was part of Tweedlove in Peebles.

Blue skies on Friday. 

Straight from work on Friday night to the Tweed Green for the marshall briefing, lots of important info and a nice catch up with some familiar faces. Not a fan of driving more than I need to I was living the vanlife this weekend, so headed just outside of Peebles to a quiet spot to camp for the night, dinner, a beer and some quiet time, just what I need after a week at work. 

Saturday was a free day, as much as I love marshalling I would go insane if I didn't ride my own bike too, so I only volunteer one day each weekend and ride the other, this gets me riding new places sometimes and allows me to have my own weekend time. My friend Gael came through to meet me and we spent the day riding the Glentress Red and Blue trails, getting her new fancy Mondraker set up, and generally having some fun in the sun. 

Sunday was go day for marshalling, I was to meet at the Buzzards Nest car park at 6.30am, so only one thing for it, that was to be my camp spot meaning I could have a beer, chill out and get an extra 30 mins in my bed, bliss! Was nice to be chilling at the back of my van with no cars passing by, it was lovely and quiet with a few bikers still coming and going and a couple of other over nighters dotted about. Burgers, beer and feet up in preparation for a big day. 

Waking to a chilly and soggy Sunday I layered up in all my clothes and waterproofs before cooking my breakfast under my unruly tarp over the back doors, which promptly blew off into a puddle (I have since added big spring clips to the van to resolve this). After a slightly damp breakfast I gathered my bag, flask and brolly and assembled with the crew. Briefings, meetings, more rain, more coffee, cake, radios, maps, rain, rain, coffee, ready to go, bundled into pick ups and posted up on the hill, go time. Due to the weather the day had been cut from four to just two stages, I was positioned at the bottom of stage 5, the first stage of the day (1-4 were the previous day at Innerleithen), and as it turned out, a muddy, sticky, nasty stage that took its toll on many riders, bikes and kit. Top 20 riders aside I don't know if many people didn't have to stop to clear the mud goop from their tyres, most common phrase of the day was "my wheels just stopped moving" closely followed by "I ripped off my mudguard". It seems that any braking was a bad idea as it just accelerated the mud accumulation which then hit the fork brace or mudguard and brought the bikes to a halt. Most people were pretty miserable by this point in the day so I tried being as upbeat as possible, whilst also trying not to have too much of a fan girl moment as my idols zipped into view and paused for breath beside me. 

Pro marshall set up

Once the riders were all passed and the course was announced clear we were free to return our radios and responsibilities to head marshall Tara and clear off to the Green for some pro-spotting, friend finding and window shopping. Catching my friend Victoria from Foxhunt at the Green, we headed off for some much needed food. It is amazing how hungry I get standing on a hill doing not a lot, when I find I hardly eat during exercise, I cannot seem to stop on marshall days! After food (and jump starting Victoria's car) I ventured off to find a new spot for my van for tonight. As a marshall I was given a pass to the EWS after party so tonights requirements were to be walking distance to Peebles and pretty, I found just the spot. 

Tweedlove EWS afterparty... the bar ran out of IPA, Vodka, Jaegermeister, and I have no idea what else... it was that kind of party. I made new friends, whose names I cannot remember, I drank too much, partied with people I barely knew before this evening and even managed to snag a few pics with a legend. Top night. 

Waking on Monday I was feeling more than a little delicate, but the view above helped with that, as did a big mug of strong coffee and plenty of bacon and eggs, for today was no day to be hungover, today was EWS Xtra, and I was supposed to be on form for riding. Riding trails way beyond my normal level and a bit worn in by 500 riders thrashing them for 2 days. After breakfast I headed to Innerleithen and to No.1 Peebles Cafe for a nice strong black coffee whilst waiting for Gael to arrive. 

Starting at the "Golfie" trails behind Innerleithen the trails are far steeper than my comfort zone allows, I tried and failed to ride some of it, I crashed into more than one tree and resorted to walking / falling down the hill dragging and being dragged by my bike. Must practice steep. Meeting Gael I felt pretty bad for holding her back until she said she had an OTB and was finding it a bit sketchy as it was all blown out from the traffic of the race. We agreed to call it quits at Inners and headed to Glentress instead for the rest of the day. 

I have wanted to ride the off-piste trails at Glentress for a long time now and this was the first time I would have a go, having nicely way-marked trails to help us piece together a fun day made it a lot easier to get some flow and fun into the day. Starting at the mast right at the top, above Spooky Wood, we began to ride, for me it was the first ride of the day, as I managed to ride more than 10m in a go! Twisting through the woods on a fresh trail was great fun, and I started to relax and remember to have fun and ride my bike instead of stressing about what I cannot do. The trail took in bits of Spooky Wood, Betty Blue and joined Broon Troot further down, I cannot say I rode Broon Troot, I probably managed 70% of it, but I will be back to keep on practicing until I can, and it will be a good way to progress my riding and maybe get back to the Golfie once I can ride it well enough and see if I can ride that too by then! After Broon Troot and Pie Run we were back at the fire road so we pushed on up to shortly before the mast to ride stage 8, starting in the woods with some twisty turny fun again, into Ho Chi Minh, a rooty, wild ride, I cannot wait to go back and ride that again. 

I have kept my maps and plan on riding more of the off piste trails at GT in the future. The trail centre trails are great for all weather riding, but the more natural stuff is wild, fun and scary, it's brilliant! 

Next time: Fort William, World Cup Fever and more vanlife. 

Missing link 1

Since I did so much in my absent two months I am breaking it down into smaller stories, this is the first and covers May pretty much. WARNING… Picture Heavy!

I enjoy taking photos, I like to share adventures and have something to look back on, but I don't like that I only post these digitally and never have a physical photo unless it stands out for some reason then I may print it. I decided to print a load of my photos in polaroid style and create a wall of memories, a lot of them are bike related, some are from my childhood, all make me smile. The wall is in my living room so it's nice to see it every day, it is not yet complete, I need more pegs, and will continue to print images and when it is full I will swap images in and out to keep it fresh and interesting.

On May 9th I took my sister to Carron Valley for some mountain bike fun, we love it there though lots of people slate it. I like to think of it as a giant bmx track and enjoy the flow of the jumps and berms, it is not technical in the usual sense, there are no roots or big features, but ridden as fast as you can it is a good laugh. Being a surfaced trail it is rideable in all weathers and it features a lot in my winter riding, though it hurts to fall there when the ground is covered in 4 inches of solid ice. We had a lovely mellow day in the sunshine, enjoying short sleeve riding which is always a highlight! 

The view over the loch is lovely.

Rebecca loves me taking photos of her on the climbs! 

Me in my garish colours. 

My birthday is in May, and this year fell nicely on a bank holiday weekend so I took the Friday off work and had a nice long weekend planned. Drove from Glasgow to Perth on Thursday night to catch up with a friend, we drank too much and chatted until about 4am, I am too old for this! Waking at almost 1pm I was worried that I had wasted my first bike day so I ate some food quickly and headed north towards Laggan, a trail I love but only visit on the world cup weekend en route to Fort William each year. I made it to Laggan for just after 3, got my bike sorted and headed up the hill, an ominous cloud hanging overhead and a bit worried that I had left it too late. On the climb the clouds parted, the air warmed, greens became greener and everything just became brighter and better, I think this was in part the weather improving but mostly my hangover shifting. I have never ridden Laggan alone, only in groups, and it was great fun, riding at my own (slow) speed, stopping only when I wanted and repeating anything I wanted to. The rocky, slab based trail is brilliant in all weather but in the sunshine, on my own, on a Friday, it was perfection. 

Artsy bike and log photo. 

View part way up the climb.

Part way up the upper red climb. 

Top of the upper red loop. 

On returning to the van I would have loved to go round again, but being a weakling and having another bike day booked in for the next day, I opted to get cleaned up and find a spot for the night instead of pushing it too far. Driving through the Cairngorms is always nice, I drove towards Fochabers because Saturday plans involved meeting friends from Aberdeen to ride the Moray Monster Trails. I found a quiet set-back layby and set up camp, cooked my sausages, enjoyed a beer, and just sat. Bliss.

My layby. 

The sun descending. 

Breakfast time. 

After my bacon and eggs I trucked onwards to meet Bruce and Elle at the trail car park. The Moray Monster trails are pretty old school in nature, lots of climbing to start, berms and flow, a lots of roots to finish, but not major big features. The last section had recently been updated and has some massive berms, swoops and flowy features, it was fast, wild and fun trying to keep ahead of Bruce who was snapping at my heels! Brilliant day, but I was glad I had not overdone it at Laggan. 

What a view from the top of the Moray climb! 

Hey Bruce! 

Hey Elle! 

Another artsy bike photo. 

After our ride we drove back to Aberdeen and went to a pub for a nice catch up, I was on the water as then drove to Stonehaven with my SO where I was treated to a lovely dinner, we camped in the van on the cliff top, woke at sunrise to visit the castle ruins but were defeated by clouds. A few more hours sleep and we drove onward to a lovely beach and had breakfast high up on the cliff tops, before some rock climbing, walking barefoot in the sand and paddling in the freezing cold water, refreshing! Driving back to Glasgow for dinner at my sister's house then drinks with my friends, it was a perfect weekend, here's to another year! 

Although I do try to avoid gluten and sugar, 

there is no avoiding cake made by my sister for me. 

It would just be rude! 

Next time - EWS, Tweedlove and more vanlife. 

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

Hello all, 

I have been bad, I have been absent. Sorry about that. 

It has been a long time since my last update - I feel like I am in confession and I am not even Catholic. In that time I have marshalled some enduro races, watched the World Cup at Fort William, ridden my bike in lots of bits of Scotland, spent a LOT of time living in my van. I have partied with Cedric Cracia after the EWS, partied with Fionn Griffiths and the Athertons after the World Cup, weird and fun things which have taken my time over blogging. I hope to provide a more full update soon, maybe tomorrow, but just know I have not forgotten you, I have just been busy living my dreams, and it's bloody good fun! 

Oh, and how good was Gwin's run at Leogang? Insane, go watch that on repeat whilst you await my ramblings! 

Sarah x

Woman down

Hello again,

I am writing this in pain as I have crashed my bike once more, nothing serious, but enough to put me off the bike for a few days, again. First I want to rewind to last Saturday and a brilliant sunny ride at Mabie with Gael, the first short sleeve ride of the year and my first time riding the red trail there.

I have visited before but the conditions closed in and 2ft visibility and 1ft of snow meant that I cut the ride short after the first, short loop, and had never been back to complete the bigger loop - Mabie is a figure of 8 layout with the first loop being about 20% of the total. What a blast! The trail here is a lot more natural feeling than the likes of Glentress, with more roots and naturally occurring slabs making a lot of the features, and some massive man-made berms to add some contrast. There were quite a few cars parked but once on the trail we were practically alone for the whole day, meeting a lady at our first breather spot, we met her a few times, overtaking and being overtaken as we each rested and drank water, until we eventually lost her too and had the trails to ourselves. This probably explains the natural feel of the place, the lower traffic means less damage and repair work is needed so the trails don't get so 'sanitised'. I really enjoyed the flow of the trails and with all my riding and skills practice recently I definitely noticed an improvement in my speed and riding ability, I was riding the trail faster blind than I used to ride trails I know well.

I look forward to returning to Mabie now that I have a better idea of it and see how much faster I can go. One of the features is a stream crossing, which leads onto a climb (called Scorpion so I am told), after sessioning the stream to get photos we carried on and there was the scorpion, looming above me, I dropped down a few gears and attacked it, overtaking Gael (she is a downhill demon but hates the climbs!) and was giving it my all to get to the plateau in the trail, Gael was cheering me on, so I dug deep, dropped to granny ring and span my way up the last steep bit to the fire road, gasping for breath but proud of myself, that was a sharp climb and I did it, now I have to do it every time I visit! After finishing the red route we popped along to the freeride park and had some fun on the jumps, Gael was trying to teach me some of her skills, I have a long way to go but can now get both wheels off the ground and land in a controlled manner, progress!

On Sunday I marshalled the POC enduro at Ae forest, stationed at the start of the 4th stage I once again got to unleash my awful banter on each and every rider. My job there is to make sure they all set off the timer as they start the stage, it's great fun seeing the different lines and styles of all the riders from the pro's to the first timers. I might even go and try riding some of this stuff soon and maybe even enter a race next year, but for now I am enjoying the social aspect of marshalling, living the van life and helping the races happen whilst enjoying views like this!

Back to last night, BMX Wednesday, I moved it to an outdoor track for a change as the weather is great and it won't last in Glasgow so we have to make the most of it. I was a bit late in arriving and there was a fairly large squad riding when I got there, brilliant! Most of the folks were my mates but there were some local kids too, which always makes for good banter. I had decided to take it easy, having hurt my shoulder at BMX last week, I had been nursing it all week and this was my first ride since Mabie where I noticed it was not quite right. Shorts, tee, knee pads, helmet, all present and correct, I did a few laps and felt great, I was faster, smoother and better than my last visit to the track at the end of last summer, all this riding really is paying off! I started applying my teachings from Gael to the tabletop jumps and was noticing an improvement, I was getting about halfway over them, yay! Setting off from the start ramp on one lap I think my foot slipped off the pedal, I don't really know, but next thing I knew was a pain in my lower abdomen, I am sliding face down along the floor and the thunk as my helmet connected with the gravel floor. Ouch. Luckily I walked away fairly unscathed, some bruising to my internal bits n bobs, a couple of grazes and a bruised ego. After checking in the van that all was ok I donned my elbow pads and swapped my helmet for a full facer and returned to ride again, so that my last memory was not of a face plant! I managed about 3 laps before conceding that my leg was actually pretty painful and calling it quits for the night. Thanks to good friends I made it home and onto the couch with a cup of tea and bag of frozen peas. My leg hurts to extend it fully, I am walking with a limp, and feeling sorry for myself, but as I was wearing knee pads and a helmet I walked away just fine. From now on full pads and full face helmet at the track at all times for me, especially as I am wanting to go faster and jump now. Lesson learned. Here's my pathetic grazes that do not in any way represent the pain caused by landing on the pointy end of a handlebar! - "That's a Booboo" - Neil Macmillan

This week I have mostly been wearing Threadless Tees and continuing to rock the double denim. I may need to rest and not bike this weekend, I shall play it by ear, but I have plenty of plans including leaving parties, Roller Derby to go and see and dear friends to visit, so even without bikes this will be a great weekend. Until next time keep it rubber side down folks! 

Tough Chick Thursday Three

Back to the weekly entry on fitness and all that jazz. In the first one I covered diet and last week I spoke in depth about bikes and where my passion comes from, today I will go into what else I do for fitness and my goals. 

Until my crash in which I dislocated my shoulder I just cycled, no other exercise. I enjoy being outside, I hate gyms and I am rubbish at team sports, I was happy riding my bikes up and down mountains, to work, at the skatepark, it was all about the bikes. Whilst forced off the bike for 6 weeks I had some exercises from the doctor to ensure I healed properly and to minimise the damage, once I was back on the bike I continued the exercises but still felt like my upper body strength was not where I wanted it, and I got frequent pain in the affected shoulder. I bought some home gym equipment and now work on my core and upper body a few times a week, fitting a workout in most evenings I am home which is usually only two or three nights tops. As I said I am not a fan of gyms so this works best for me, it also means I can fit it in whenever suits me and it can be a quick blast whilst dinner cooks or a longer session depending on how I feel and how big the ironing pile is. 

I am a believer in using what you have so I do a lot of body weight exercises such as push ups, sit ups, pull ups and planks, well, I say I do a lot, I attempt them a lot, but am still working on achieving many! I use small dumbells to help build the strength in my arms and shoulders, lots of light reps (5kg) as I don't need to build massive arms, just keep my shoulders and arms strong enough to fend off crashes better. 

At work and for some of my weights exercises at home I sit on a gym ball, this has drastically improved my balance and posture in just a few weeks, and it is something I will continue to do. After a day on the gym ball I stand and sit taller, walk straighter, my shoulder blades sit in the right place and I don't slouch. I also suffer less from back pain, which I often get as a result of compressed lower vertebrae caused in an accident 18 years ago. 

On top of these exercises and as a warm down after most sessions I have started to incorporate a yoga routine into my evenings, it is a routine I found on the pinkbike website and it is specially designed for bikers and targeting lower back pain specifically. What I have learned from this is my balance is truly awful and I am not as flexible as I would like, but am working on it and improving with each session, hopefully by the summer the improvements will show on the bike too. 

I am still working on cultivating abs by my birthday, crunches and weighted sits ups are my best friend and worst enemy right now, there is no reason to do this apart from mild vanity and stubbornness, but I will persevere! 

I plan on continuing this regime for a while and hopefully building up some upper body strength through this and maybe working on some calisthenics workouts, or maybe I will just admire videos of the people who can do that stuff and never manage it myself! Bmx Wednesday is being brought out of the park and I will start mixing it with alternate weeks at the bmx race track to work on sprints, manuals and jumping whilst enjoying the few warm nights we might get in Glasgow. I need to start cycling to work again, I have been lazy recently and keep walking instead, and I need to get some evening mtb rides in, the nights are lighter so no more excuses. Let us ride! 

This week I have been rocking some double denim for fun, a bowtie and waistcoat combo and riding my awesome chrome and pink bmx.. until next week, bikes, bikes bikes!!

Tough chick Thursday

Diet and fitness is the name of the game for this weekly slot, last week I touched on my diet, today I will discuss the demon that is exercise. As is quite clear from my blog name I am a biker first and foremost. I ride mountain bikes as much as I can manage and ride a bmx to work and at the skatepark or racetrack on Wednesday evenings. This entry is pretty much my passion for bikes.

I have always loved bikes, I remember all of them fondly from my first trike, my raleigh Bluebird with the box on the back that I used to fill with mud and rocks, my blue and white bmx with mag wheels and many mountain bikes. I was about 18, working in McD's and studying whilst living in Redcar when I bought a HUGE Trek mountain bike from a friends brother who was going travelling. It was far too big for me, but it had suspension forks, and it was a Trek, I was happy. I couldn't ride it properly as it was too big, but it was great.

One of my favourite rides was from Redcar to Guisborough where I would meet my friend Rachel and we would ride the trails in the woods (we rode the fireroad and thought that was mountain biking) before riding home, a good 30 mile loop on at least a weekly basis. 20 miles of this was road riding on knobbly tyres, I was super fit and very happy, I also cycled to the seaside for work every day, living the good life! As friends went away to uni and jobs I rode a bit but got a job and a car and discovered triple vodkas and biked a lot less though I would still take my bike out for a spin from Marske through to Saltburn through the allotments and woods and back along the beach for some zen time. 

In 2001 I moved to Glasgow, fitting my life into my fiat punto and heading off for adventure. I bought a stupidly heavy GT Chucker jump bike which I used for a bit of riding, commuting and getting about on. I discovered the trails in Pollok Park and had my first proper off road rides. Work and life took over once more and I rode less and less until 2011 when I joined "Meetup Mountain Bike Glasgow". With local rides in Mugdock woods I was challenged and my riding improved, I found a love for the sport that has only grown since.

I would say this was my first real mountain biking, trails, mud, roots, rocks, all the Scottish stuff that I now love, it was all there and all fun. I rode Mugdock and Glentress a lot for the first couple of years, with occasional trips to exotic locations such as Mabie and Innerleithen thrown in. I was comfortable on the red level trails and maintained this level for a few years. In August 2014 I crashed my bike on an innocuous bit of trail at Dalbeattie, falling 8ft or more off a cliff edge onto my arm dislocating it and separating my collar bone, my first major injury. Whilst out for 6 weeks I was researching trails, bought a new bike and decided to come back with a bang. My friend David suggested I join him and his mates on their local trails, technical, natural trails with some big features added in. I joined them for a ride and absolutely loved it, this location is now my favourite place to ride, it is fun, fast, local and allows for a lot of progression, something I am finally working on.

Two days after being allowed back on my bike I rode the RedBull Foxhunt race, my first ever race. I rolled up in my van, a bundle of nerves, signed in and collected my pack and went back to hide in my van until BBQ and beer o'clock. I took photos of my first number board and race jersey, texted everyone I know, panicked, tried to sleep, and got myself a bit stressed, before sacking it off and going in search of food and company. Within 5 minutes my worries were gone, I met a mother and daughter duo Gillian and Zoe who joined me for food and to share nervous banter and debate our theories about the possible race track and how we may fair. Pro rider Rachel Atherton gave a small speech and made everyone welcome before we had some beers and retired to our tents, vans, hotels and homes for the night ahead of practice day.

Practice day meant a great bbq breakfast provided for us, and meeting more new people, I met some fabulous friends at this event, and would recommend turning up alone to anyone who did not make it last time as they were worried about being alone.. you will not be alone for more than 30 seconds, it is just not possible! We were uplifted halfway (if you're being generous) up the track and then had to push up the rest of the track, the last few metres got pretty steep, I started to get worried as I am useless on steep! My aim for the weekend was to finish in one piece and not hurt my shoulder, so I took it easy and tried to learn lines to take in the big race. By the end of practice day I was achy, tired and ready for a rest. RedBull took care of us all with beers and another BBQ, I made new friends in Faye, Aoife and Emma amongst others whose names have vanished in an alcoholic haze and we ended up drinking too much Gin and Bourbon as well as all the beers and anything else we could find... great race tactics! It was Faye's birthday, so it was only right!

Hungover race day began with all of us crawling towards the communal teepee and filling up on bacon and COFFEE! Race tactics were being discussed whilst my aim was still to finish in one piece. After my gentle qualifier I was in the back row, where I wanted to be, to protect my shoulder and what little dignity I had. The idea behind the race is a reverse fox hunt, so all the racers start in a grid formation with the pro, Rachel, behind us all, the horn sounds and all the riders go for it, 10 seconds later Rachel sets off and chases us down with the aim of overtaking as many people as possible. She overtook me at about 14 seconds, given that 10 was spent with her waiting, that means she over took me after 4 seconds, haha! There were crashes and clashes galore on the first corner, then it got serious with race lines, overtaking and fast riding. I even managed to overtake some people, to finish 97th out of 117 racers for the day, I was over the moon!

The atmosphere at the bottom was electric, with everyone cheering each other on, spectators, kids, riders, racers, sponsors, everyone just having a great, positive time! My face hurt from smiling. I gave a few garbled, hyper, interviews, tried to wind down, speak to all my new friends, Sarah, also from Redcar, Clare who takes beautiful photographs of dogs, Chantelle who runs Hamsterley Divas, Gael who is also in my Meetup group and now my best riding buddy, Jaqueline who rides bikes like a demon, Victoria with her awesome dogs, and so many more that I cannot name them all. What a weekend, what a rush.

The point of my ramblings about the race are that it gave me so much new confidence to get out and ride more! Since the race I have pushed my riding up a few levels, I now encourage more women, children, anyone, to take part. My enthusiasm was such that I started a facebook page for a reunion ride, this has now passed but "Foxy Riders United" is still running for all women who ride mountain bikes, come join in and share rides and adventures with us. I cannot say enough that every lady who rides bikes and can make it to The Pentlands in September should come to FoxHunt, you WILL make friends, your riding WILL improve and you will have an amazing weekend. You have my word.

I now ride faster, harder and better than I did before my injury and I am only going to improve more as it has only been a few months and most of that has been winter. Tomorrow I am riding an uplift day at Innerleithen and I am equal parts scared and excited, this is going to be a big challenge for me and I like it, if you're not pushing yourself then what's the point? Get out there and LIVE!!

See you on the trails boys and girls!!

Girls DH day Inners

As the title suggests Friday was another brilliant day of bikes. Rona Strivens had posted on the Foxy Riders United page if any ladies fancied a day on the Uplift Scotland trailer at Innerleithen. I signed up, this was before I had ridden Ae and before my trip to Bike Park Wales. I was scared, nervous and excited about the prospect of riding some seriously steep and scary trails on my bike. I am way over biked for most of the riding I do with 160mm front and back suspension, but the point of buying that bike was that I could do uplift days and other downhill oriented days on it, so time to "Woman up" and commit.

On the day the uplift was fully booked with 16 keen riders, more than 50% of us were female, thats a fantastic turnout on a weekday! Here's a photo of most (not all) the girls who were present in our psychedelic glory! I am the vision in yellow on the left, Rona is on the right in the brill pink Flare shorts!

I missed the first run of the day as I set off on time, but on the M8 I passed a car with a wheel missing, then my friend Gael's (Green shorts in the photo) car on the hard shoulder... Yep her boyfriend Scouse had managed to send his rear wheel into the central reservation, luckily no-one was hurt! I doubled back and loaded all the kit from the car into my van and pressed on to Inners whilst they sorted the cars and followed in Gael's car.

Getting ready for uplift two and Marianne (black and white in the photo) turned up, I was relieved to not be the only late one jumping on the 2nd uplift. Marianne had brought Harry the dog to see if he might make a good trail dog. He will not, I think I ran him over at one point, oops, but he seems to like me judging from the kisses he was giving me. Thanks Harry!

Bikes loaded onto the trailer and we set off to the top of the hill. Gael was still en-route and was meant to be giving me some guidance for this new type of riding, so Marianne stepped up and offered to guide me down my first run of the day. We started at the top of a track called Tunnel, which looked fine, but looking behind me I could see the steep line in from a track further up, leading to a road-gap jump into the line we were about to try. What had I let myself in for?! Ahh well, here goes... Follow the black and white warrior and hope for the best! 

The first section allows you to pick up a LOT of speed, I was on the brakes pretty soon to keep my acceleration to a minimum, it is easy to see that letting go would allow for some fun jumping action in the woods, but I will work up to wheels off the ground once my confidence and skills are up to it. After the straight line of jumps the trail gets a bit twisty with berms, roots and rocks pushing, pulling and firing you down into more trees, with multiple line options and some technical sections. I fell apart on a section called Luge, all the options looked really tricky and I was already struggling to keep up with my guide. I minced my way down and onwards to a section made of some nice 180 degree switchback berms, at least I did after hanging too far off the back of my bike in sheer fear and having my leg dragged into my bike by my knobbly tyre. OUCH. There were bad words. Lesson learned though, get forward, be strong, be aggressive. I made it down most of the switchbacks without too much bother though I had to walk a few bits, I met Marianne at the fireroad ready to pick the next line. 

The entrance to the next section started with a small run in, but this had a long drop to the left and I could not get the thought of my Dalbeattie crash (dislocated shoulder) out of my head, I took a couple of attempts at committing to it, but in the end I had to walk in and set off from the first berm, I will have to work on my confidence when the ground vanishes to the side! Eventually, tired, arms and legs aching, we were back in the car park, having missed the 3rd uplift due to my need to track walk and discuss all the options and my wee paddy at the fireroad, so a bit of much needed rest was had before jumping back on the land rover for another go.  

Despite protests and offers of help from Gael, Marianne and other lovely ladies I opted to spend the rest of the day sessioning the same track alone. I find I ride at my best when I ride within myself, if I am following someone I tend to forget to focus on myself, and if someone is following me I get too worried about them, but alone I am able to concentrate and get myself in the best frame of mind to ride. I rode Tunnel, getting faster each time, until I scared myself hitting a tree stump and almost pinged over the bars, so I reigned it in a bit. After Tunnel is Luge, and I almost got better at that, I had 3 lie down's in the woods, but with a bit more speed I know I can ride that tricky section, not bad considering I looked at it on the first go with Marianne and thought "no way, just no.". At the fireroad I decided to pedal uphill and join Janes Lane, a trail I rode on a coaching day with Jess Stone in February, it is tight, twisty, rooty and a level up form my riding in technical terms. By the end of the day I could very nearly ride it all, there are still some gremlins for me to defeat, I will return for them soon.

Popping out of Janes Lane brings you to the second half of Caddon Bank, a whooping, undulating, rocky trail which can be fast and furious if you have the skills. On the coaching day I had struggled a lot with this, despite having ridden it before, I am always scared on it, the downs are steep and I have a massive fear of it. I followed Jess that day and on each of the undulations I held my breath, got to the top at an almost standstill and then let go of the brakes and hoped for the best. By the last one Jess could see I was pretty stressed out so tried to challenge me by telling me I was about to ride the steepest bit of trail I had ever ridden. It worked, I was frozen. No matter what she did, including holding my bike for me, I could not let go of the brakes, I got so stressed out and gave up.

Not today. I got to the whoops, and I was in my element, none of them scared me, I was flowing and enjoying it like the first time I rode it, before this fear developed. I got to the last one, I knew it was 'that one', but I did'nt hesitate, I looked at it, looked at the opposing summit and went for it, what a rush. This was not a technical bit of trail, I have done it before, but the relief of getting that monkey off my back was amazing. I flew down the final berm and jumps, powered into the car park and got straight on my phone to let Jess know I had defeated it. Her coaching worked, albeit a little later on, but that is because I am a major stress head and far too hard on myself. I got back on the uplift and rode these same trails for the rest of the day, by then end I was overtaking people on Caddon Bank, try telling stressed out me that that would have happened on that first uplift, phew!

I might not have graduated to the scary trails but my riding improved so much over one day. I will be going back as soon as I can to rinse and repeat that same combination until I can ride it all clean. Uplift Scotland means I can practice the same thing over and over in one day, this means I can see a measurable improvement each run. I love this. I will be riding the scarier stuff one day, but for now I am so happy to be able to ride any dh trail at all and to be pushing my riding up a level again. I just need to remember to stop being hard on myself, I will never be the best, I learn by repetition, so just keep on trying, I am improving!

Thanks Rona, and well done to all the ladies who came along, you inspire me!