Downhill TT

Last fall, long before I was diagnosed with cancer, I attended a BetterRide Mountain Bike Skills clinic with Andy Winohradsky. Prior to the clinic I did a downhill time trial on a popular trail in Corner Canyon. This allowed me to get a baseline of my downhill speed on a trail I know well. I did this Time Trial three times and had almost identical times of 3 minutes every run. I then attended the clinic and practiced skill drills a few times a week over the fall. Then winter came and I spent more time on the trainer and at the gym than outside riding my bike. This spring, as we headed south a few times for singletrack Shannon kept telling me I was riding the downhills waaaaay better. I did feel pretty good, but then again maybe he was just being nice, you know, to the girl with cancer:)

Fast forward to this weekend. We have had unbelievable weather in Salt Lake City this week. So nice, that I was able to ride dirt every day for the past three days! Yesterday, I decided to put my new skills to the test and drove to Corner Canyon for some downhill time-trialling. My fitness isn't race ready, but it really isn't too bad. I thought it would still be a valid test. My goal was 10 seconds faster. I did a short warm-up and then headed to my downhill trail for my moment of truth. I rode as fast as I could but never felt out of control or like I was pushing the limits to0 hard. When I got to the bridge (my finish line) I looked at the stopwatch and it read 2:37. I took 23 seconds off my time from last year! I then recovered and did it again. 2:30. Now I was going a full 30 seconds faster than last year! It was amazing and I felt so good on the bike. When I do the math, I reduced my downhill time by 17%.

How will this affect me? I'm hoping in a big way. Park City Point 2 Point took me 9.5 hours last year. Looking at my GPS file, approximately (and I mean really approximately) 3 hours were spent downhilling. If I reduce that by 17% I can take a full 30 minutes off my race time without even climbing any faster. and I will be climbing faster:)

This photo just shows off my cool/fast bike

Here it looks like I have floaties on!

Trying to be low and balanced; allowing the bike to move under me

Hammering out of a turn

Still working on drilling the corners