How to, er, mount things.

Yep, no way to miscontrue that one.

Last cross season I didn't practice a single time and did fair at the races.

I have wondered many times why anyone would purposely go out and practice getting on and off their bike to get ready for cross. I mean, how hard can it be to get on and off a bike? I guess I should say remount and dismount to fall in line with the proper lingo. Turns out getting the whole mounting issue gets pretty tough at speed. I was always so exhausted in the races I didn't even notice how bad I was at the non riding parts of the race.

I noticed today. I took the Nature Boy out to ride the pseudo cross course at George Ward. The bike was awesome. 32 psi front and 35 psi rear feels like a good pressure and the brakes still do what they are supposed to. I like it.

I however, sucked. I can get off a bike pretty quick but discovered I do this stupid stutter step deal when trying to remount at speed. Think Michael Jordan pump fake before a jump shot...too bad it wasn't the '93 Finals or I wouldn't look like a bumbling idiot doing it. This effectively brings one to a halt to give a false sense of security when jumping back on a seat similar in layout to a fence rail. Go figure, I want security when jumping on something unyielding. The problem seemed to be unwillingness to actually jump off the left leg to get on.

After troubleshooting the hot water heater tonight I was still irritated with my pump fake remount and went to practice some more. I'm not fast doing it but I can now do it without the stutter step. Really gotta JUMP off the left leg and COMMIT to getting up there. Think cowboy jumping up on his horse. Maybe not having a big cowboy hat is the issue at hand here? Who knows, I have over two weeks to figure it out.

I still want to double up and race Andrew's J and B special tandem in the 4s race with him. Now that will be awesome.