Your Custom Text Here
Today we had such incredible flow at our clinic. Everyone was eager to learn and had very positive mindsets. We covered a lot of material and the women handled it all smoothly.
We love days like today!!! Coaches: Kristen & Erica
Kristen, Rebekah, Georgia, Stephanie, Erica, Laura, Lydia, LaRobyn
Janet (grandmother of 5!) had a private session and absolutely rocked it! She has been riding mountain bikes (quite well) for a few years and was ready to add some skills to her quiver. She was quick to respond to the new skills and was surprised how dynamic she could be on the trail!
Such a blast with the @backcountry 2019 interns and their brand new, beautiful bikes! 2 of them had ridden mountain bikes before and the others never had. @wedgeshelly & @ericatingey enjoyed teaching them how to ride safely and skillfully as well as how to take care of their demo bikes. We are hoping they are inspired to buy bikes and continue to ride when they return to school (and work) in the fall! Hooray for bikes and the people we get to meet while riding them!
Our returning client and super-star endurance athlete, Lauren, had a private session with Virginia this week. Lauren races mountain bikes and compete in trail running races.
Virginia and Lauren had an awesome time, and saw some great improvement in Lauren's cornering, particularly her downhill switchbacks! She got a lot more confident cornering at speed, and could feel when she was doing things right vs using her old habits, which is what we really care about!
Lauren said her biggest take aways were learning about the brake zone, being smooth and consistent with feathered rear braking, looking ahead, and turning her hips when she turns.
Here is a quick recap of her athletic successes:
Mountain biking -Finished 5th in 30-39 CAT 1 (first CAT 1 race) at Sea Otter Classic 2019
-4th place podium finish at 2019 Intermountain Cup Cactus Hugger in women’s elite division
-Finished 6th in age group at MTB Nationals in 2018
-Finished 4th overall at 2018 MidWeek MTB race series in pro/expert category (first time racing in that category)
Trail Running:
-Finished 18th at 2019 USATF Trail Run 1/2 Marathon National Championships -Finished 3rd open woman at USATF sanctioned Sandy City 4th of July 5k and improved my 5k time by 10 seconds! (18:44)
-1st Female and 2nd overall at 2019 Arches 9k trail run
-Finished 19th at 2018 XTERRA Trail Run World Championships
This weekend we had another fantastic group! There was a huge variety of skill levels: some very experienced riders ready to take it up a notch and a couple of never-evers! Our coaches worked with the clients to develop the skills right where they needed it. In the afternoon, we split into 3 groups and taught each one appropriate (and fun!) skills. Later this week we’ll share more details about each group.
Private session report from coach Shelly: “It was really exciting to get another chance to coach and ride with Somai today. She attended one of our clinics last year and has really put in some time practicing and getting comfortable on her bike.
Today we were able to build her confidence on steeper climbs and descents and her ability to roll through rock gardens!
Way to go Somai, keep up the great work.”
Coach Shelly had a great morning with Charmaine and Lisa! They had a lot of practice working on slow speed switchbacks; breaking down the steps to be more efficient with braking and line choice. Then they took to the trail to test out their new skills! It is so much fun seeing how much these women improved over the past two sessions. Keep up the great riding!
Coaches Virginia and Shelly had a great time coaching the advance riders in their second session! They were more than ready to take their new skills of getting their wheels off the ground from the bike park to the trail!They practiced several of the drops on the Bobs Basin trails, and even got in some good high speed cornering and switchbacks. So much fun to watch the confidence and high skill levels improve even more.
Cornering clinic and we found the most gorgeous scenery possible! It was a small group of very strong and experienced riders. They were challenged on varying shapes of corners. So fun to watch them gain skill while flowing smoothly.
Yvonne traveled from Cody, Wyoming to take two private sessions with us this week. She is a rad mountain biker who has signed up for her first Enduro Race this summer. The first day she worked with Shelly, who challenged her to maximize her bike and body separationso she could flow smoother and faster over really technical terrain. The second day she worked with Erica on cornering and switchbacks. Her skills were already great, we just fine tuned them to help her gain speed and confidence as she begins her racing. As a side note, Yvonne is a budding stand up comedian with mountain bike related material (very funny, we got small previews)!
On Wednesday we had a great clinic with some women who brought some different skill sets and experience levels to our week day cornering clinic.It was really exciting to see our newer riders learn to separate their body from their bike and not only roll up and over rocks and curbs, but lean the bike to start taking corners at faster speeds.In addition, our more experienced rider was learning to incorporate better pressure control, timing with braking, and line choice throughout the corners. Super Cool. We are anxious for next week to see how their practice is coming along!
Our drop clinic this week was such a blast! This group of women already had excellent timing and balance. We just developed the the specific timing of when to get the wheels off the ground. We started with small drops and progressed to the larger drop by the end of the night! They sent it so confidently and safely! Can’t wait to watch them fly again next week.
First time on dirt for these women! Shelly coached the Intro to mountain biking and these women were thrilled to find out what their bikes can do! They were all very surprised that they could ride over curbs and small rock gardens on their first day! Smiles all around and another session next week!
We started our 2019 clinic season with a wonderful group session last Saturday.
Check out the beautiful riding the women did over the weekend. We had a wonderful group of women and we covered a lot of skills. So happy to know they can ride safely and now have more fun on their bikes!
Coach Shelly had a great time coaching Amie this week. Amie is an avid runner, yet she has been challenged on technical downhill terrain while on her bike. She often found herself getting off her bike and running more than riding! Teaching her how to stay in a balanced position when the bike was moving underneath her gave her the much needed confidence to tackle rock gardens and steep hills. With a little more practice her downhill skills will soon match her uphill fitness!
Honored to work with the Glide SUP/Glide Fit executive team over the weekend! They were very coachable, humble, and fun. That combination made the time fly while we were covering a huge variety of skills. They’ve ridden a lot and had some specific things they wanted improve. We worked through all of them so now it’s their turn to practice! Session 2 with them will be in July! (It’s also time for Erica Tingey to learn how to SUP properly, can’t wait!)
This woman is now ready for her 2019 season to be safe AND fun! Deanna has been riding for some years and had never been officially coached. She ended up with a serious injury last fall and decided this was the year to make her riding safe! She’s read the testimonials on our account and was hoping to pick up the skill as quickly as our clients say they do. She absolutely did! At the end of the session she was astounded by how it all finally made sense, all the little bits of advice she’d been getting over the years. She had many moments where she really “felt the flow”, where it all clicked and was smooth and fun! Cheers to safe riding from here on out!
Our first new flyer of 2019! Heather Hales has been riding and racing bikes locally for over a decade. She really wanted to learn how to get a little air as well as improve tight switchbacks. This woman will keep practicing until she has mastered these skills, she is super dedicated! It’s a blast to work with clients throughout the years and see improvement each time!
Had a lovely private session with Suzanne yesterday. She hasn’t ridden a bike in nearly 20 years! Being a natural athlete, she was able to pick up the skills very quickly. Her first foray on to the dirt was successful, so now she is ready to start exploring trails near her home that are e-bike friendly.
