Had a go on a red route last night

I had my 1st trip to a trail centre on Wednesday and enjoyed it (mostly).

Started riding again for the 1st time in 10 years in March when I dug out my old Marin Alpine Trail to try and lose some weight and get fit.
As I was enjoying riding (mostly bridleways but the odd trip to Woburn for the XC stuff) I did my usual trick of spending too much, so one Giant Anthem later I headed north.

As my parents live about an hour from Glentress it seemed rude not to take a trip there while visiting the family.

I was surprised by a few things though. The main one being how quiet it was when I arrived at 8am, i.e. I was the only one there! Also how little it scared me.

A chap at work had suggested I should just try the red as it isn't too bad, but after reading quite a bit about it on forums like this one I decided that perhaps I should stick to the blue.

So started at the Osprey car park and set off on the blue, decided to take in spooky wood as it tied into the route quite well, this was the mostly bit on the enjoyment, going up that hill almost killed me! Coming back down was great fun though, a few small moments, mainly getting the line slightly wrong off jumps but nothing that actually scared me or sent me off the trail.

So after finishing the complete blue route+Spooky in about 2 hours I decided I wanted to keep going so I jumped in the car and drove up to the Buzzards nest Car park (couldn't face the long climb again!).

I then set off on the Blue again, but this time missed out Spooky Wood but did the reds of Super-G, Hit-squad Hill, Pie-Run, Magic Mushroom before rejoining the blue/red/black Cardie Hill climb back to the Buzzards nest.

I felt some of those red sections were much more technical than Spooky Wood and certainly some of the tree root stuff caught me out a bit, but I backed off on the speed and worked my way through them, again, a few small moments but very glad I did the second loop of red stuff as it was great fun and I certainly learned a lot about what I and the bike were capable of.

I was surprised that I never really felt out of my depth or got worried, I know that if the trails had been busier then there would undoubtably have been guys riding much faster who would have caught me up quickly, and that to be honest was one of the things that I was worried about when it came to riding the red routes as I'd hate to have screwed up someone elses run by being too slow but on that day it just wasn't an issue, and I also found I didn't feel as slow as I thought I may be so would in future be more confident to have a go at more reds.

However, as has been said in this thread previously, some of the Blue routes at Glentress are great fun, with a number of harder sections built into the routes, like the larger jumps on Good Game (I think it was good game).
I'd certainly do a similar run round Glentress in the future as the mix of Blue and Red seemed to suit what I wanted to do and the enjoyment levels for me, it's just a shame it's a 4 hour drive for me to get there.

Have ridden the Healey Nab red and the Llandegla red. Thought they were completely different really... The former was a lot more technically challenging and crammed with features, the latter was more of an athletic challenge for me but had some great sweeping sections that put a grin on my face..

Had to walk the rocky drop on the red at Healey Nab and I went over many of the other sections but not as confidently as I'd like to have.
The only bit I walked in Llandegla was a steep trail climb that I was too fat to pedal up That said, the Not Shore section was closed.. I suspect that would have provided some entertainment.

I did feel like I was pushing myself and consequently improving when riding both... Taking the bermed corners over and over allowed me to start to get a feel for the technique. Something I've not been able to grasp before.

I think towards the tail end of my early years of mountain biking I'd become pretty much set in my ways about what I could and couldn't ride... Coming back to the sport I've taken a bit of a look at what I think I can't ride and asked myself why... A trail centre seems like an ideal place to go to see if I really can't or just think I can't.... Even just standing watching more skilful riders tackle things I'm worried about shows me where I'm limiting myself.

I worried about Northshore for a while before going out there and just hopping up and riding across it. The nice wide sections on the red in Llandegla made me wonder what I was worrying about.



Gotta love seeing no rambling signs too.