I had a great opportunity this last weekend to pre-ride a course that will be featured in the Session Series on Floyd Hill. I've never ridden this course before, so I wanted to get a few laps in to get familiar and see where I was going to be able to go fast - and where to exercise caution.
This trail is a purpose built, downhill only MTB trail with alternate lines that are rocky, steep, fast.
I was able to take 4 laps on this trail. The climb up was a 650 feet of climbing, 1.8 miles. I did it between 25 and 30 min. The descent was just over a mile back down. The challenge on the climb was to control speed and not burn out. It was tough to keep my ego in check getting passed by a lot of people.
What struck me was how shitty and not-confident I felt on the first time through, and how good I felt on the last time through. This reinforces what I suspect:
Preriding is key.
I spent the first time down going slow, stopping to look at the obstacles and any dangerous spots. The second and third time I tried to ride everything and see where to push speed. The fourth time I really pushed for time.
Run 1: 8:02
Run 2: 6:58
Run 3: 6:20
Run 4: 5:22 <- in the top 5 fastest times of the day
Learnings:
- Hitting every feature is fun, but might not be the fastest
- I gained a lot of speed by focusing on what corners were 180°+
- This course has a lot of splits and options, that caused confusion I likely won't deal with on other courses
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