Practice, Practice, Practice!!! 07/11/10

July 11th was the only day during the NESC race season where there was no scheduled race. I woke up Sunday morning and it was kind of weird not being up at the crack of dawn getting ready to head out to a race track. Instead, I slept in until about 8AM, had a nice breakfast, and then got the bike ready for some heavy-duty practice.

My good friend Dan and I along with a few others set out for some practice at a private track a couple of towns over from my house. At first, I just practiced laps around the track. But I kept thinking about how much practice I needed on cornering. So instead of just doing laps, I got Dan to help me out with sections.

For about 2 hours with Dan's help, I just worked on cornering. It was hot and humid as hell, but I didn't care! I wanted to improve my cornering skills and take it up a notch. I knew from Jolly Rogers that if I had been able to rail some of the turns I could have finished in the Top 5.

So we practiced 3 corners over and over again. I learned to stand up longer and only sit after the bike went over the very last bump before the corner. This helped me get the bike seated correctly before the turn and not get that unwanted bounce. Dan was awesome at telling me when to sit down on the bike as he stood on the edge of the corner and signaled to me to sit.

I also learned that aside from sitting too much, to be in the attack position! Elbows up, head low, chin up, and using my head to point the bike to where I want it to go. After a few runs, this worked great! It felt like in one motion I would go from standing to sitting, to turning, and then to exiting the corner- all smoothly and quickly. It felt way more natural than what I was doing before.

I can't wait to try these new skills out on Sunday!!! I am definitely sure that they will help shave a couple of seconds off my lap times. Corners, Corners, Corners!!!! And I owe Dan dinner for all the help!!!!

-Patrick