by: spdu4ea from USA out of MTBR
How often do we actually feel 100%? I just came back from a ride, where I felt so good. Words cannot describe the feeling accurately. These 100% days seem to come to me maybe three days a year. They are the few days when my bike feels light as a feather. It seems to float over the ground, and up all but the steepest of hills. The bike becomes an extension of the body, it fits better than any glove. You can actually feel the ground pass below, yet you are distant enough to miss its imperfections. It seems to grow its own muscles on these 100% days, and it places itself on whatever line it sees best. If the tires start to slide, your whole body feels each crevice of the trail. Yet your stomach remains calm, as the bike's own muscles push it back on track. These muscles seem to shift the gears at the best possible time, and put power down the split second the shift is complete. Once you encounter a steep hill, you leg becomes part of the tire; it feels the ground below, and gauges how much power it can take without letting go of that tire. And while this is all taking place, you are left in bewilderment. Why couldn't this day have come when I was racing, or had a big group of riders? Yet it never does. The next day, that long hill will require twice the effort it did. The bike will seem foreign, and you won't sense the moment before the tires give up. The bike won't float; it will drag. All of its muscle will have turned to fat. Why? Why can't 100% days be every day? Or every week? Or even every month? Why are they so few, and far between? Do we miss them? Do these 100% days occur the days we don't ride? Or do they occur at all? Is it just in our heads? Or just in mine?
Go To Page: 1
The copyright of the article Feeling 100% in Mountain Biking is owned by . Permission to republish Feeling 100% in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
