Midwest Women’s Mountain Bike Clinic

I spent three days this past weekend at Brown County State Park at the Midwest Women’s Mountain Bike Clinic. It was a great time for all! 96 women, from those who haven’t been on a mountain bike before to pro mtb racers, and ages from 6-66. It was a festival of camping, networking, riding, and just having fun with each other. I was in one of the beginners group having graduated from the introductory group last year. After being off the mountain bike for 8 months after an injury last October it was a great way to start getting my confidence back!

My little group’s instructor basically focused on the same things we did last year in the introductory group: bike/body separation and stopping drills and some shifting practice. That being said, it was exactly what I needed after my time off the trails. One of the drills presented quite a problem for me, the “windshield wiper” where the bike moves from right to left while my body stays still, and I’ve yet to be able to actually do that (that will change). We walked away with good drills to practice.

While we had no official group ride scheduled, after lunch we decided to ride Limekiln as a group. That was the same trail on which I was injured in October so while I hadn’t planned for a rematch that afternoon, we had one and I won 🙂 I was quite pleased to note that the edge (as in places where the ground drops off after the edge of the trail) didn’t both me at all. I had been a little concerned that I would have to re-fight that old exposure fear after having been off the mountain bike for so long but it was a complete non-issue. It was probably best the rematch came as a surprise so I didn’t have a chance to over-think and tense up.

As always I chose to camp in the Rally Campground with most of the participants. I arrived early enough to score a nice spot with good shade and just far enough away from the center of action that I wouldn’t have any problems sleeping – yet not too far from the bath house. We must have our priorities 🙂

All in all it was a great event! We are very lucky to have Sub-9 Productions in Indiana or we wouldn’t be having such great events as this Clinic and the other great mountain bike events they host.

I always have good intentions of getting good pictures at the mountain bike events I attend but I typically forget that I have my camera. I did, however, get a few shots.

For some reason I couldn’t get a good shot of car, bike and tent – so opted for bike and car. The cooler on the table is my official beer cooler, the food cooler stays in the car as racoons don’t appear to care for beer 🙂

This is the official Trek Women’s Demo truck about set up and open for business. There was also a Giant demo truck but I forgot to get that picture. They both brought an assortment of mountain and road bikes for demos.

While this little one with the sweet smile wasn’t old enough to be in one of the youth groups – this 2 year old has already had her first mountain bike ride on her Strider. How can that smile be resisted?

Last, but not least, my mountain bike taking a break halfway through a trail I’ve not ridden before, the North Tower Loop. The sign is to a trail that is beyond me right now, but I hope to be on this trail as the summer progresses 🙂