I have a special kind of injury right now, it's caused by traumatic impact to the bottom of both feet. I'm trying to think of other ways this injury could occur. The only thing that comes to mind is soldiers in a Humvee when an IED goes off beneath them. I've heard their feet get slammed pretty hard, but also their spines. It's probably not a great idea to start my post off with some stolen valor. So let's reset. I am limping a little, and it's been years since I've done this to myself. I over shot a jump by so far that I fell out of the sky into the flat bottom between jumps. The impact drove my pedals hard into the arches of my feet. Technically I didn't crash, I rode it out. So I made sure to officially crash a short while later. I came up short, cased the landing and went over the bars into the dirt. There's a moment when you know you're going to come up short on a jump. You're left with two choices. One is that you accept your fate a...
The day after my 50th run down Indiana Jones. I met up for some laps with Aki and inevitably, I made lap number 51 down Indy. I just can't get enough of this run. For me, it takes everything I've learned about climbing and riding single track, stirs it up with everything I've learned about drops, jumps and freeride, and spills it out in one two-minute run down a gully. Aki suggested that I might know the trail better than anyone. I don't know if that's true. I tend to think that when pro racers are blasting down the trail they are seeing details I wouldn't ever consider. The trail must feel completely different at 20 mph compared to 12. No, I don't know Indy better than anyone, but I know it enough to have my opinions on it. And I know a little history about it's evolution. So let's begin at the beginning. The initial roll-in. I'll just say it, the right side line looks like pure death. The left side is steep and it can be greasy when it's ...