RideSmart - 6.27.2009 @ MSRC - FOLLOW UP

[ciaka]

What a day.
It was super hot, but seems like everyone had a blast.
Very few get offs in all levels and the day seemed to go really smooth.
Hats off to all you who attended, and managed to get through the entire day.

As always, we are interested in your opinions, so post them up and let us know how the day went for you.

Thank you for deciding to join us at Cresson. Take care.

[Loyd]

Hot doesn't even come close to describing the day...

The last few laps of every afternoon session had my toes cooking! You know how you feel when you've sat in front of the fireplace too long and then move? Your shirt kinda sizzles your back a little. That's how my toes felt every time I shifted around on the bike from corner to corner. Poor little piggies were scorched by days end. Thank goodness for flipflops...and truck a/c that blows on your feet!:mrgreen:

My day went great! I was more than a little tenative initially after the previous event's dismount on the new section. I almost had myeslf talked out of going. The last few weeks working hurt because I ran into a ditch will do that to ya...I actually talked to about 6 other riders at this event who had either been off in that area previously as well, or darn close to it. (Someone needs to grab a shovel and fill in the drain ditch) But I digress...The bike went back together fine. No loose bits. No broken bits. As for me, I wasn't tentative at all. I really expected the usual "tenseness" you feel heading back around track after falling off. I hope this is merely a sign of improvement and realizing what I did wrong, not foolhardiness.

I gotta hand it to the level2 instructors again. A real desire to try and impart knowledge they have. We had some great question/answer classroom sessions. I got a few more tips about track lines and some help with my body position off the in-class bike session. I took bikecam footage each session of the day. It was very interesting to watch my lines improve through the day. (Even managed to sneak a legal pass or two in an area I never thought to have enough room for due to Dirk's lines! :sun:) The whole day went together for me like a puzzle. I never felt like I got the entire track down smoothly in a session. What I did get where pieces put together enough to scoot around at a pretty good pace and never feel above my head. A couple instructors went so far as to tell me I give the impression of looking smooth. One fellow told me I was looking kinda hesitant towards the end of the afternoon sessions. When I explained the burining boots, he just grinned and told me that sounded about how I looked. So I filed this one away for a win.

I think "Ray",one of the level 2 instructors, described the day best for me when he said: "At my age, I have to plan ahead to make the whole day. It's just too darn hot to go out more than 70% and expect to have any ability to ride left at the end of this." Being as he isn't so much older than I, I took his words to heart. I event went so far as to take an old instructor "Scott" bit of advice and ran most of the day in 4th gear only. Some of the other students were looking at me in disbelief when I told 'em this. The payoff was pretty noticeable to me watching my laps last nite though. I did't overtake folks coming out of corners. What I did see though was me running up on folks into and thru those corners. It was a pretty fun mental game for me to put it together how and where to use what I had. Talk about some judicial use of trailbraking. :trust: I was accelerating sooner and smoother for me. I was clocking laptimes roughly on mediaplayer at 1:40-50. That's quite a bit slower than what I've ran in the past...but I couldn't tell you for the life of me anything about those laps. I can replay quite a bit of yesterdays +'s and -'s and where I could've accelerated here and there to get another 5-10 easily.

There's a few ":shock:" running thru my hed as I type still though:
1)Cresson usually eats tires. I've got two full days at cresson and two at tws on the set I'm running now. I don't think they're done yet.(Which is a bugger because I have a pirelli set I really wanna try out)
2)I only filled up partially once the entire day. I usually suck at least two full tanks of gas a day, even at cresson.
3)All these things lead me to believe I was really running slow again. I know I'm not a level4 pace atm. But I am pretty easily motoring past everyone else in lvl2. Some of the slower instructors are easy to keep in sight too...

Ah well, so long as I can keep progressing without hitting the dirt.:sun: