Learning to Mountain Bike. Nathrop 10/13-14

So this weekend was something completely different. I have been very interested in getting some coaching and it so happens that the guy that wrote the book Mountain Biking Skills happens to live in Boulder and was having a training camp on the weekend of 10/13, 10/14.

The book is simply a must read for anyone who loves mountain biking and that wants to improve their skills but I wasn't sure what it would be like to get coaching on riding a bike so had never looked seriously into it.

But this weekend Amber had work commitments so we couldn't go out of town so I signed up for the camp. It seemed a bargain to get 2 days of coaching for only $200.

So when you go to a tennis coach they tend to tear you down and show you how terrible your basics are. Well with Lee it was a little bit like that except that with the tennis example a new grip just doesn't feel right for quite a while after. With the stuff Lee was showing us it just felt right and more importantly it felt better immediately!

We were taken through the basics from how to "ride" on the bike, to braking, to cornering, to pumping and even to dirt jumping.

Simply the best $200 I have ever spent in mountain biking and I will certainly be spending more time with Lee in the new year as he has a great coaching program where a few people can share the costs.


Here is Lee part way through a rhythm section showing us how to pump both sides of the bump. It was great being shown something, trying it and then getting instant feedback on how to improve or even get shown again in a more exaggerated manner if it seemed hard to really feel what he was teaching us.


The other cool thing about the camp was the mixture of skill levels of the participants and even with that everyone was getting stuff out of the coaching and you could see improvement in everyone.


One of the fun challenges on the first day for the more experienced guys was to try and just pump the rhythm section here into a table and to clear the table without any peddle strokes for extra speed.

The end of the first day left me really sore and tired as it felt like I was learning to ride all over again and was using muscles that I have never used riding before. But the day was really great and the number of new things I got to learn still amazes me as I think back.


Saturday night I decided that sleeping on the summit of a nearby (easily accessible) peak might be fun. So I drove up to Cottonwood pass which is just over 12,000' and hiked up a hill on the south side of the road. The views from the top were incredible but it was to dark to take any photos. This is a shot from the parking lot.


There was snow predicted over night so it was not a surprise when I woke up to a couple of inches of the white stuff all around me. I camped in a rock shelter on the summit with my Bivy Sack and sleeping bag and slept really well except for when I had to get up during the night to pee - it was really cold out of my bed.


Walking back down the slope the next morning was not as easy as the night before as there was enough snow around to make things sketchy but not enough to actually be able to kick steps.


Looking back up the mountain. This was at about 8.00am Sunday morning.


The road actually was pretty crappy to drive back down as the surface was unplowed and untreated. Add the fact that the tires on our FJ Cruiser were pretty worn since they had 30K miles on them and you have a potential recipe for disaster. I actually went into a full skid on one of the corners and banged into a guard rail. Luckily there was no oncoming traffic and the bumper of the vehicle took the impact. Could have been a lot worse and we have since put new tires on the FJ.


Sunday didn't look as promising as it was raining instead of snow, but ever the motivating coach Lee got all our slow moving asses into action and Day 2 was even more fun than Day 1.


We spent a lot of time on cornering and turning and it was another one of those "how have I not known this before" skills sessions. So much of what Lee taught us was stuff that you look at and think that riding any other way just seems so much harder.


Here is a short video of the rhythm section into the tabletop on Day 1.

Overall it was a great weekend, the people were fun to ride with and Lee's coaching is simply world class. If you are thinking about racing or you are racing and haven't spent time with Lee I can only recommend that you give it serious consideration - it will be money well spent.