WWjjD

Glinda. You know Glinda, otherwise known as the Good Witch of the North. Remember her? She set Dorothy up with some bad ass shoes, and then sent her and her little dog Toto packing. After taking a difficult and not so fun route back to Kansas, Glinda reminded that idiot Dorothy all that was unnecessary. Dorothy had the power to get where she wanted to go all the time; and for some crazy reason, all that power was tied up in some hot little shoes. As if that was supposed to be obvious or something? ???

Anyway, JJ has becoming a bit of a mountain biking "Glinda" for me. You see, a ways back she set me up with these bad ass shoes, and as I put them on this morning I couldn't help but approach my ride with a WWJJD mentality. I rode MW/DR. Big deal. No thang. But today I brought with me more confidence ... in my balance, my stength, and my absolute ability to put and keep my bike where I wanted it, when I wanted it. Like JJ does. And who the fuck wouldda figgered? It worked! Like magic! My bike was on rails. It was reliable. It was agile. And I was a better rider than the day before. And it felt good.

What I noticed is that I'm finally becoming more comfortable getting legitimately behind the seat on downhill sections, and find the seat popping up between my legs regularly in sections before that it wouldn't. That sketchy, light feeling on the front wheel? Well, it's starting to make sense, and allowing me to glide lightly over trickier spots, instead of just barrelling through them with my fingers crossed, relying too much on my fork. In steeper sections, I find myself unwittingly using my rear wheel more consciously to steer, than to brake. And that's a whole new fricking deal.

Lightness = good. Flying monkies = bad. :D I'm sure there is some tidy Wizard of Oz reference left in there somehwere that would tie up the loose ends of this story proper, but I'm running out of time ... and if I want to have a chance in hell at riding later tonight I gotta cut this stupid thing short. So I'm out, with sincere thanks to my friend JJ. See you on the trail! :)