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Hi All,
Over the last decade or so I've come to terms that I will always be a worrier. I have had anxiety since I can remember, and now am keeping fine with medication and mountain biking.
Work has always been the source of my biggest worries, but over the last year I have nailed it and am pretty happy and succeeding with keeping the demons at bay.
In the last year I have expanded my rides to bigger rides in the Lakes and a trip to Torridon. I loved blasting down the rocky, high speed stuff.
In the last few weeks though I've had a complete turnaround.
Riding off Helvellyn I didn't like the look of it and walked some sections. Then I tried some off piste at Guisborough and my head went and I walked some stuff. Last night I went to Hamsterley and I couldn't even ride the man made stuff properly.
Is it possible for anxiety to refocus? Or is losing confidence a normal thing? I haven't even crashed but I am tense and fearful of everything on the bike.
Everyone's thoughts are welcome.
Helvellyn can be pretty lairy in places and guissy off piste can be pretty hard. Maybe your trying to run before you can walk? Which has then knocked your confidence?
Just because all the videos and pics you see are of folk riding hard on these more technical trails doesn't mean you should be able to do it straight away. It takes constant practice like anything else.
Although I can ride most stuff I'll openly admit I get a bit scared on new technical stuff and ride it a bit rubbish. Repetition is the key. Once I get to know the trail my speed and confidence increases.
Take it easy and build up at your own pace. 👍
Comes and goes for me. Sometimes I'm rubbish on technical stuff and really tense and keep thinking about crashing and some days it all just flows and I feel like Rachel Atherton!
Comes and goes, though nice weather and dry dusty trails seems to make me far less cautious. I'll go crashing (maybe literally) through all kinds of rough stuff and maybe hit a few of the lesser jumps and drops.
Winter and it's a mix. Sometimes I'm going for it and yet some days tiniest little feature I've done plenty of times before and I'm mincing around it or stepping over. If it gets sketchy especially, but not through the feel of it as I like sliding about, but it's the look of it, such as sloppy looking landings or steep chutes. Mind jumps to the potential bad outcome. I'm always like that. Constantly thinking of the what ifs. It's good for some things but knocks the confidence on the bike sometimes.
Though thing I do find is it all improves riding with faster people who are up for technical, and certainly when there's less stopping and looking at stuff. Less time to think.
Thanks for being a sounding board 😁
Sounds like some other people suffer from erratic bravery too 😉
I'm going to put my full face on for a few rides and session some trails I know.
Hopefully I can find some sort of flow again
As others have said, comes and goes for me. Trick is to not force it. If you’ve run out of brave at the moment, fine, just rude sone easier trails or ride the more techy ones slower. It all comes back eventually. Same after crashing. Sometimes if I’ve had a big off I’m fine straight away, back on the bike as if nothing happened. Whereas I had a big crash about 7 weeks ago and I’m still very tentative on the bike and find myself getting a little anxious before a ride. Just ride when & what you want and enjoy it, we haven’t all got to be enduro gods all of the time!
I've caught myself at the top of the wee wooden bridge in glentress before.
I'm of the opinion that pushing something you'd normally ride is fine. If it doesnt feel right you're not going to relax and thats when bad things happen.
Sounds pretty normal to me. When it strikes me, I know it's time to go back to old school XC riding out in the countryside and forgetting the gnar shredding for a while.
I wouldnt worry to much about it,I ride the Golfie,Dunkeld and other steep stuff most weeks but the black at Comrie Croft freaks me out Ijust cant ride it without crashing because I start to panic as soon as I drop into it
Or is losing confidence a normal thing?
Yep. Has happened to me many times. Usually related to riding less though. Seems that the more I ride the more steady I become.
Just mix the riding up. I've never been a great descender on technical stuff (ex roadie) and tend to back off, but I'm cautious as I had a very bad spinal injury 2 1/2 years ago, so don't want to go through that again, and I don't think my employers would be too happy with more bike related time off.
Just do some more XC for a while