When to listen. When to slow.

It would be hard to say to someone's face that instinct is not at all important. But in reality it is amazing how often people ignore it. I knew today as I headed face first down at man made stunt at "the demo" that I was going to fall. By the time I was on my feet again, I gaze back at my bike twisted and right side down against this structure and feel a wave a anger and disappointment because in looking back I knew I would fall even moments before I tried the stunt, one I had done countless times in the past. The messages at that point weren't even subtle! Luckily I walked away with only two dings on my shin and knee from catching the bars on the way down. Once again I credit another dodged bullet to the years of martial arts that if nothing else taught me to roll and fall without thinking about it. I know this because i started down the ramp face first and hit the ground on my feet. Lucky, and mostly so because I really did dodge a bullet that other riders do not. I am fearful that a lot of the bad crashes that riders take come from not listening to the signs.

The day of riding started poorly. Fun, no doubt, but I felt all together foreign even on my own bike. I couldn't hold speeds I was used to, and felt wobbly and awkward with my hands on the bars. To me this scenario is always accompanied by a subtle, as I describe it, cloudy and disconnected sensation in my head. This is a sense that I'm working harder and hard to recognize early. The beauty of this is that you are no longer at risk of being injured by a fall! Early on Dusty took a fall himself, and was equally shaken up by it. I think I knew by that point that I myself wasn't on my game. Not even a little bit. I now have two wounds and a hematomato (hematoma) on my knee as evidence to the fact.

My point of all this is. When you feel off you game, as I did today, SLOW DOWN. Honestly if you can't enjoy some of the best trails in the world at the tortoise's pace as much as the hare's, your missing something fundamental about riding. I am particularly fond of the people I ride regularly with, and care for riders in general. Likewise I equally disinterested in ever coming across a spinal or a fractured femur on trail. I intend to follow this post with one on response to common on-trail injuries and conditions that you may see and quick ways to assess and respond to them appropriately to the best of my knowledge. Check back for that soon.