Quote:
Originally Posted by Misti
Great write up and great progression!! Well done! I'm glad to hear that you were able to take good information from a variety of people and put it all to use in a way that made sense to you. I love the way that you list the things that helped you in a systematic way and that you are open to the fact that you still have a lot to learn.
For your final comment, you talk about being relaxed and mention that when you tried to go fast, it didn't work out as well for you vs when you worked on being relaxed. This is super important.
Now, you can remind yourself to be relaxed until the cows come home, but there are usually specific things you need to do to help you stay relaxed while riding. What did you find were some specific techniques you used to help you be more relaxed? Was it looking further ahead? How you were sitting on the bike? Were you squeezing the tank with your knees? What was the biggest factor in helping you stay relaxed while riding?  |
@Misty,
Thank you for taking the time to read this and comment. Without people like you and so many others, I think I would have sold my bike by now and found another hobby! I will do my best to answer your question but I am still working everything out in my head.
Everytime I try to intentionally up my pace, I find that I start to make small mistakes which take time and effort to correct before the next turn. This seems to overwhelm my mental budget and force further errors at the next turn entry. I found that if I just focus on the "rules" of riding, stay on line, hit all markers, I am able to roll on just a little bit earlier and the lap times drop-if ever so slightly. The best lap times for me feel slow but the chrono does not lie. When the bike and I are working in a smooth rhythm, like a dance, the bike feels fluid and I go faster but all I feel is that I could have done the turn faster. Rushing into the turn trying to brake later and turn in faster has lead to small mistakes which are just amplified if I rush the next corner entry. With a relax and just ride attitude, the bike stays happy which makes me happy and when I am happy and the bike is happy, its much easier to start rolling on earlier in the turn and hold the throttle open longer on the straight which is the flour low lap times are made from.
I am no wordsmith so my description above may not make good sense to you, I will try to sum it up below.
When the bike misbehaves or I miss my marks, I realize that I am not relaxed and focused. I am over spending my mental budget and need to smooth out. The bike is way better at riding the track than I so it must be me that is the cause of these issue(at least at my level) and I need to "Flow" with the bike and track better. Once I realize I am trying to force the bike to go faster, I can focus on my mantra for the track. My mantra goes a little like this: Lift bike and run to right hand outside of track look for marker X, move butt over and begin braking, find turn in marker and begin to release brake, turn, begin roll on and look for exit reference marker........RINSE and Repeat. Something like that not like when I am "rushing things" where : count to 1 after brake marker to brake, brake harder to slow enough for turn entry, turn faster and rush to get back on the throttle. This all seems to come down to experience, the more I ride and the faster I unintentionally go, my markers seem to "automatically" change slightly and lap times improve. I cant see any other possible cause than overwhelmed mental budget. When I flow with the bike there is no worry of entering the turn too fast and running out of grip, I just slowly add more load to the tires which have time to give me the feed back that they are OK, which gives me confidence to roll on and again receive feedback that they are not losing traction, which helps keep the throttle pinned longer and longer.
I guess what I am saying is that relaxing gives me confidence to go faster and when I dont have the confidence, I recenter, and focus on my favorite Keith Code quote:" is the bike happy, are you happy when the bike is happy?" Just like marriage, keep your partner happy and everything else gets much smoother and works better!
PS: Next season I hope to be writing about exiting turns with the rear gently sliding but that is another journey!