Haystack OHV – Roswell, NM
There is a lot to love about riding in this area, with just one thing to hate. The GD Flies. I headed down early on Thursday so that I could spent some time relaxing, sleeping in, and getting a bit of time in on the bike. The weekend was a special one, since It’s my birthday. Yes, I’m getting old. Not liking it, either. I only brought the trials bike down this time, I needed to spend some time on it practicing, now that I can actually ride it without being in constant pain.
HUGE, props to Jason and Denise at Wellness Works PT, the dry needling/tens has helped me a lot. It only took 4 appts to make the pain more manageable. I’ve had issues with my SI joints since my knee replacement. It shifted my gait enough that I was really struggling the problems, like the back pain. I’m sure the back surgery 4 weeks before the knee replacement didn’t help. I went back to the neurologist early in the year trying to get some relief, I had two rounds of injections, with some PT for stabilizing the SI joints. That did help quite a bit, but I still wasn’t comfortable most days. It was a fluke that I found the Wellness place. I went to a shoulder clinic there to see if there were some exercise I could do to get that stop bothering me. That worked so well that I had them work on my back. Nothing short of a miracle, I felt better within a couple days. It just kept getting better, I’m down to seeing them once a month. I was able to start working out with weights again!!!
I don’t know why I rode so much better on Sunday than I ever have, but things had been starting to get better at Lake Fork. I had a couple of rough days at Glorietta, if you just look at the scores, but something clicked for me that day Jessica chased me down the trail. I was forced to not think about the sections, I just had to get through them as fast as I could. It was the reset that I needed to show me that I could ride that bike as well as I ride the dirt bikes. Most days on those I do really well. Trials has been good for my dirt riding… Dirt riding has not helped me with trials. I have finally broken the habit I had of dabbing just because I could. Along with the habit of taking multiple dabs when I did it. That sure does help the scores too.
Friday Dee Murray of D Squared Trials was kind enough to do a clinic for the women. What a fun group of women we have in this club. I had a great time, working on things that had been making me nervous. By the end I was having fun riding stuff that would have me worried before.
On Saturday the loop was longer, I really do like those kind of loops. Gives me time to think or should I stop over thinking the section I just rode. I had two 5s that really ticked me off. They were just dumb; like the ones I had gotten in Glorietta. The morning wasn’t without drama, Geneva lost her kickstarter. We had to go search the loop for it. She found it as she went one way on the loop and I went the other.
I was on that loop I realized that I was doing pretty good. Bad idea for me to start thinking. As at the next section I forgot where I was going, I rode through the wrong gate. There were a couple more dabs that I didn’t need, but took anyway. I wouldn’t have made it on the podium, but I would have been close.
I did manage to get some good pictures while scoring the upper sections. I got lost on the way out to the section, it resulted in my snapping at Lance and walking an extra half mile I didn’t need to. The TM found me once I headed out on the bike to look for the section. There was no way I was going to walk up and down that mesa again. Too much work. Lance and made up later in the evening over a beer.
Frustrated by that, I made it my goal to keep the feet on the pegs, no matter what, and to make sure I didn’t get lost in the section. It was on the start of the second loop that I was excited about having only one dab. Of course, it was in the section that Wendell and Curtis were scoring. Figures….
When I had made it through the second loop without picking up anymore points, I started to get excited. I was sure that I was going to blow it somewhere. To my shock. I didn’t. A single point day… I was pretty dang pleased with myself. It wasn’t until Jason, told me that, a 1 was likely to get me first. Wow. As it worked out it got me 3rd for the day, there were two others with clean cards for the day. Oh well. I’ll take 3rd.
