Follow up to losing my mojo. After taking on board some of the comments made on my grumpy post, talking to Neil and adding some extra thoughts of my own, I'm back to really enjoying my riding. The keys for me have been: 1. Acknowledge that I ride for recreation not competition results. 2. Completely separate what I do for developing formal "Trials" (ie comp) skills, and what I do just because I like it. Remove all guilt for not being a purist. 3. Deciding that I'm only planning on going to a couple/few comps next season, just the ones I really enjoy. 4. I only ride if I want to. This has meant that I've abandoned all pretense of following Neil's training plan, sorry @Neil Price :-) My plan looks more like 1\3 fun + 1\3 fun + 1/3 fun. Not a formula for best progress perhaps. I practice whatever gives me a kick, regardless if it's got any relevance whatever to riding the sort things I might see in a comp. And I don't feel at all guilty for it. Setting markers and tape just isn't that much fun, so I haven't. Sometimes I enjoy developing skills that will help in a trial, but I do it just because it's fun, not because it will help me get a better score. For instance I've been practicing stopping exactly on the crest of obstacles and turning immediately. I don't beat myself up for putting my foot down, that's a minor part of riding for fun. Sure I try hard not to, but it's no more relevant than any other 'mistake'. I've been trying to ride my MTB more, but that's fallen off the wagon a bit because I'm back to having fun on the moto. I'll be interested to see what my mindset is at the next event I go to. My plan is to go into it as a fun day out riding with others, not a comp. Haven't decided if I'll keep a score or not. Let's see if I can actually do that or if the competitive monster inside raises it's head. :-) I also haven't decided if I'll ride T3 and just tackle the obstacles that look fun, or T4+ and actually try to keep my feet up.

Posted by Peter Mack at 2023-09-13 10:26:04 UTC