Adventures in MTB Land- Bikeland's Cypress Creek Group Ride = Insane Fun!

This is not a sponsered post.

Hello from cloud 9.

I hope that all of you are having as much fun down there as I am up here.

I just rode what is known as one of the best technical trails Houston has to offer.

Moore Bridge.

This feature is called 50/50. Nothing sketchy about it except for descending through sand.

North Ridge @ Cypress Creek trails of Houston, TX

 Wow. Big stuff for anxiety girl. "Able to leap to the worst conclusion in a single bound!"

I had ridden Cypress Creek with my husband once before. I think all the verbal hype had my guts wrenching before I ever got there. I wound up having fun during that ride, but I didn't ride a lot of things.

When you have anxiety, just going somewhere new can make you nauseous. Going somewhere new that people way more skilled than you have talked about being pretty sketchy... well.... let's just say I was happy to see a porta potty when I got there.

I was pretty nervous. Like nauseous.

Ok, that's everyday when you live with anxiety, but I was nervous about the trails for real. 

What would a MTB blog, that is geared towards scaredy cats, be without a scaredy cat!? It's all for the blog people. All for the blog.

Upset stomach for the blog.

Rocking back and forth in the corner for the blog. 

Diarrhea for the blog. 

To show my enthusiasm about riding these trails I left a Facebook status prior to heading out:

I forget sometimes that I don't have to ride things if I don't want to. I can go around or walk it and there is nothing wrong with doing that. I put a lot of pressure on myself to make sure everyone else is having fun. I don't want to slow them down, clog the group or be a party pooper. Which is totally stupid because we are all aware this is a group ride and you may experience that. And we all still decided to go.

I also forget this is the cycling community. They are the coolest most laid back people ever. That's why I'm always preaching about just taking the pressure off of yourself. Nobody is judging you.

I am the biggest hypocrite ever.

I have to remind myself to just relax constantly. What's wrong with saying, "You guys have fun and I'll meet you on the other side."? Nothing. There's never been anything wrong with that.

I try to think of it this way. Would I be upset if someone was slow or having trouble or went around a feature? Well if I did would be a Dick. Don't be Dick. No one likes him.

If I don't want to go slow then I take myself to a faster group, ride with my own group or ride by my own damn self. Everyone else can do that too. And they do. That's why you/I just need to relax. It doesn't ruin everybody else's fun because you decided not to roll something.

The porta- potty is not a great place to over-think things, by the way.

On the other side of all that,  there is no better feeling than riding something you were intimidated by and the rush that follows. There's also the way the others in the group celebrate it with you. It's so awesome. I had so many of those moments today that I didn't even care about the times I walked.

I repeat, there is no shame in walking anything. It's always better if you are not feeling confident about something to walk it. I'm always scared before I roll something but that's different then when I think I can't ride it. Or that I'm too nervous and might lose control on a feature. The worst thing you can do is force yourself to roll something and then panic. Just don't.

With that said...this sounds kind of contradictory here, I'm learning to not over-think things and just go for it. I've built enough skill over the past year of heavy riding and learning from others that I am capable of more than I do. Thanks panic attacks. So learning to not give myself a chance to over-think things before I'm already committed worked out well for me on this ride.

 Following a group makes this so much easier. I see them go down, their positioning, their lines and I just follow. Not every time. I'm still working on this but I felt like I had a breakthrough on this ride. Thanks to the sweep (the guy that makes sure no one is left behind on the ride), Adrian, for his gentle nudges and reminders to not think about it. Hopefully once I get this down I'll get some hair back.

I think my friend, Dean, has nailed it. The names of these features send you into accelerated heart rate before you ever think about riding them. And I quote, "It's the name that gets people. They should rename it Fun Joy Happy Trail instead of Widowmaker.". I think he's onto something there. But telling your friends that you rode "Fun Joy Happy Trail" just doesn't sound as impressive as telling them you rode Widowmaker.

In my husband's group, they aren't as much about features as speed. A lot of times they go around big features to blaze. Out of my kids, I have one that wants to do Cross Country racing, one that loves BMX, and one that like cruising the pavement. I'm just happy they want to ride.

In the end, whatever riding you love, it's about finding the balance between risk and good judgement. I like how my husband words it, "Never over-ride your ability.". Go with your gut and don't let anyone pressure you. I've never felt any pressure to roll things in a group ride, honestly.

Personally, I love features. I feel awesome when I roll a big feature. Of course, it helps you roll the big stuff when you are riding with the best group ever. I haven't met a bad group yet, but these guys definitely didn't fail to contribute to the draw factor of the cycling community. Meet today's Bikeland beginner group:

Left to right. Meet Louis, Adrian, Wade & TJ. 

Riding with the beginner group doesn't necessarily mean you're a beginner. It could also mean you're unfamiliar with the trails, you want a chill ride or time to play. As we rode on, it became apparent to me this was the case for everyone in this group. I no longer consider myself a beginner rider, but I love the beginner group rides. Intermediate is fun too and I have yet to ride a fast group (plans to in the very near future). I guess it just depends on your mood.

There were 30 riders all together, and I was really happy to see two other (really cool) women out there. That's always comforting to me.

They went with the faster group. Rock on, ladies!

The beginner group heading into "Armadillo Dash":

Here we go!

It's always interesting to see all the different types of bikes and what people feel the most comfortable on. From fat bikes, to mid fat's, single speeds, rigids, full suspensions & hardtails. 26" 29ers, & 650b's. There are so many options and preference varies.

Armadillo Dash is a fun, less technical section that begins with a descend (or no descend) to a berm that leads you to a trail with ramps on the left, and no ramps on the right. They both meet up further down so no worries about getting separated. 

As we rolled on I began to relax a little, and TJ's route seemed to take us from easiest to progressively more technical so we had time to build up before the big stuff. That was a relief. I kept thinking about one ramp that I remembered from the ride before. I didn't roll it on my first ride out and was kind of really disappointed about that. I had told myself and others that I was going to roll it.

Next time.

I was kind of kicking myself for not riding it on my first ride out. It seemed very doable. The thing that makes this ramp scary is not that it's steep, it's not. It's not really that high. It's that you have to make a turn onto a fast descent. I've heard people say that they were afraid they wouldn't get their line straight before descending right off the side. I can see why they would think that and now it was in my brain too.

From my first ride out, this is my husband taking the turn onto the ramp. I promise to get some really sweet action shots next time I go out. You'll be able to view them on Instagram under my username Busy Mom Bikes or #busymombikes.

As we approached the ramp I started to feel more nervous. Two riders turned and descended to what leads to a jump & a sweet berm that follows. I & another rider watched them descend. They made it look so easy. 

I had already thought about it too long. I looked at the other rider. He told me he was going around. I stayed a little longer looking at it, and then I followed behind him. Talk about disappointed. Lucky for me we didn't find each other at the end of the trail so I and the other rider went back in to find them. This was my chance. I rolled up to it about 6 six times telling myself to go for it before I came to a screeching halt. Finally the other guys rolled up. I mentioned how I wanted to ride the ramp and all of the guys were all so cool and supportive about it. TJ, the group leader said "We will wait or push you down it." before giving me some tips and letting me know they didn't mind me holding the group up with my over-thinking. 

The next thing I know I've committed before I had a chance to change my mind and I'm so high from rolling it that I didn't even slow down for the approaching jump. My first real air felt so awesome! After that I had a chance at redeeming myself for a bad berm ride on my first time out. It felt like GREATNESS this time around. It felt like actually putting into practice the things I've learned about berm riding. I'm not sure how it looked, but it felt great.

I was totally pumped after that.

That gave me enough confidence to roll some bigger stuff down the trail, including a higher and much more steep descent (pictures coming to a future Busy Mom Bikes blog post near you.). Also a descent with a narrow bridge at the bottom (Moore Bridge, see pics at beginning of post.) before a steep ascent on the other side. The group lead and another rider (Wade) were waiting to catch me if I didn't have the speed to make it up. One hand wrapped around a tree and the other reaching out. 

I don't know what feminist are so upset about. Screw equality. I like being pampered and catered to.

Actually, these guys do that for everyone.

It's a joke, people.

There were some things I did not ride today that I think would be doable. But that's ok. As you learn trails you just naturally become more confident. I was really happy with my ride today all thanks to the support and gentle nudges of my group. 

By the way, have you guys ever heard the roller coaster analogy? The one that goes, "Once you ride the first one, you want to ride all of them."? 

MTB is nothing like that. 

And roller coasters are awful. 

Thank you for reading and please feel free to leave a comment or come find me on Facebook & Instagram! For the next post I'll share some of the techniques I used for today's riding along with mistakes I made that impacted my ride in a negative way. Also coming up are techniques for riding through sand. Until next time... rock on my beginner friends. My scaredy cats. My over thinkers. The dazed and confused. You anxiety ridden. & all the moms trying to make time! I feel you. I get you. It gets better. Keep going.

Biking makes you feel like this.
I can't thank my husband enough for buying me a bike, helping me learn to ride it & his patience and encouragement.

via Pinterest