I rode at Ferncliff Forrest today. This ride to be precise. Mostly anyway; I genuinely became so turned around I wound up at where I started on one of the trails.

Out here, including the NJ ride, I’m definitely an intermediate. The so called beginner trail even had steep and rocky sections replete with logs you have to lift your front tire to clear.

Mme Awesome has filled me in on how DH skiing is so challenging in the NE. At Canon Mountain, where she learned to ski, everyone was wearing helmets on the slopes when, out west, maybe some of the snowboarders were so equipped. The bike trails here are clearly ridden by correspondingly skilled folks.

The remainder of the day was pretty chill and I hit the hay earliest in weeks.

After some time I started to wonder in what area should I focus upon to help me out on these rides? Macro level we have

1. Fitness: A number of times I made it up something after regrouping and finding my breath.
2. Strength: Hard to tell here. I know compared to those baseline strength tests and what I’ve seen good mtbers lift I recognize I have plenty of room to improve. No way can I do 3 sets of 25 feet elevated pushups like M J either.
3. Technique: I was focusing maybe not far enough out, though frankly the consistent rocks and roots made for consistently modest speed. Corners could have more confidence; sometimes I essentially freeze up and revert to the not great in most any way form I’m working on leaving behind. I could also be not accepting that sometimes the trail needs to be ridden slow.