To clarify:
1. I'm not a competitive person. Racing can be very disappointing, that's why I (usually) don't do it. I have found that competing against yourself (can I clear that jump?, can I climb that hill?) is much less frustrating. In this case, it was fun because I did ok, but would have been more on the frustrating side if some of the faster riders that DIDN'T party all week w/ 4 hours of sleep per night showed up Saturday morning to spank me. Instead, most if not all were part of "the family" so it was all good! The two guys that beat me, would have beat me no matter what, unless I could holeshot, then make my bike 15 feet wide. I suppose the other possibility would be if one of them blew his bike up or something...:o :p :scream: ooops, that almost happened!
2. See #1
3. I like woods riding better around here because the tracks are either very poorly groomed, or dangerous. Once I tried out the track at LTM, I loved it.
4. See #3. I grew up riding woods or cornfields, and I thought tracks were just a bunch of "roundy round", but at age 19 a friend got me to start riding on tracks a bit.
anyway, enough about me.
KXKEN, short term memory fading already, what was your number? I'm sure we rode together...
Slo Mo, I would love to do a class thing if Okie would let me and if I can go next year!
Technique is important, but really discipline is the single most important hurdle. It's just too much fun to be a slacker! For example, I don't think I did a full lap at 100% all week, because I didn't have to, so for the race I had to re-think my entry into corners at the higher race speed, etc.
You WILL improve your lap times if you just pick one area you could use work on, for example elbows out or getting forward in corners, and work on this one thing until it is habit. The older we get, the harder this is because any bad habits have really stuck.
I think tonight I will type up some of the highlights of the trip, maybe post them if it is appropriate. After 1 day at work, parts of "THE EXPERIENCE" are already becoming foggy.
:think