Ride Like a Girl

Tonight Jolene and I met up at Mad Dogs in Orem to participate in the Ride Like a Girl group ride. KC Holley led the group. Besides me and Jolene there were five other women who joined the group--Katrina, Patti, Kody, Noelle and Heidi. Our ride destination was a surprise until we met at Mad Dog where once gathered together we found out we were going to Sundance. Sundance is a fun place to ride and I was excited to find out this is where we would be riding.

Once we got to Sundance we completed the necessary paperwork, got our ride/lift wristbands and headed to the lifts. This was probably the worse part of the whole night. I hate ski lifts, ferris wheels and anything else that has me up high. I rode with Jolene and Katrina. Luckily for me they kept the conversation going and I could look at them and not think about how far up we were as I kept a death grip on the bars. I was very relieved once we were on ground again. Prior to going down the road to the trail KC gave us brief instruction on how to ride on the gravel. I understood what she said, but it still didn't make me like riding a gravel road. At the trail we then received instruction on how to maneuver our bikes on a downhill switchback. Downhill switchbacks are probably my least favorite thing to ride. I always get tensed up an end up going around them at granny pace. KC taught me a couple of things I had not been told before, and I immediately put them to work. I found by using less of my front brake and more of my back brake I ended up going around the switchback more easily and not with the stutter, jerk motion I tend to end up doing. I also found my speed was more consistent through the switchbacks. Sometimes this made me nervous as I am not used to staying at a consistent speed. Usually I am so slow I have to pick up my speed. Sundance has a lot of switchbacks and we got a lot of practice on them. We also got to go over a log pile(which was fun), rocks and do a little bit of climbing. By the end I actually was starting to feel a little bit more comfortable going down the switchbacks. So much so, that when everyone parted their ways, Jolene and I took off for a ride up the hill and did a short ride, with of course, more switchbacks. Here are a few pictures from the ride with some of the riders.