Pure Body Balance Holistic MTB Retreat
 |
| Cornering technique with Katy |
In my experience the Universe
provides what you need, when you most need it. So it was no surprise to me that
a couple of days after collapsing at Milland (see Southern Enduro Round 4 blog)
Katy Curd said that a space had become available on the Pure Body Balance
Holistic MTB Retreat at Forest of Dean (FOD). Run by Adrian Stokes and Karen
Maidment (Pure Body Balance Centre for Wellbeing) the weekend addresses all
aspects of your riding: how you move on the bike, how the bike works inc a suspension set up class with Jake Ireland from Sprung Suspension Workshop, Katy coaching on how you ride and finally your mental game and attitude. For someone who’d just
realised she really did need to listen to her body more and to figure out how
to work with it, not against it, this was perfect!
 |
| Yep, it's autumn |
I snuck in a quick ride at FOD
before arriving at the retreat on Friday afternoon but pushed my timings to the
limit so turned up at the retreat in bike gear and covered in mud! As I walked
in a lady turned to me, laughed and said ‘Hi Vicky, you’re wearing my
daughter’s shorts!’. Not your usual greeting but I was indeed wearing her
daughter’s shorts, having bought them second hand from MTB Chix facebook group!
A great ice-breaker and totally indicative of the fun, open and direct approach
we all brought to the weekend. Over Karen’s delicious fish pie that night, the
9 of us (including my friend and Southern Enduro competitor, Katie) laughed, swapped stories and bonded.
 |
| Bikes parked up in the games room |
Tucked up in the den later on,
Adrian and Karen introduced us to the six foundation principles of health –
breathing, thinking, sleep, movement, nutrition and hydration. These really are
the core of their work and to get the most from MTB (or life as it’s otherwise known)
you need to understand and balance them all. Possibly the most powerful message
from the evening, for me, came when we were each asked to say one word that
describes the feeling we get when we ride MTB. Between us we were unanimous:
joy, laughter and enjoyment! When you hold that as the focus of your riding, it
becomes far harder to give in to the negative self-talk about why you’re not
doing something well enough. That may be a drop off or trail feature. The willingness of the group to be open,
honest and vulnerable was so impressive. It helped us all get the most out of
the sessions.
 |
| Adrian, Kathryn, Alison and Jo |
Karen started talking about nutrition by pointing out that we don’t look the same on the outside, so why should our
bodies function the same on the inside! It sounds flippant but it’s true and we
need to start seeing food as fuel but stop expecting a one-size-fits-all
solution to nutrition. After struggling
with energy during rides, a couple of weeks ago I tried a pre-ride meal based
around proteins and fat, with very little carbohydrate and the improvement in
my energy levels was massive. Karen
agreed that it’s often a case of trial and error to find out what works and
encouraged us to think about how we feel 1-2 hours after a meal to work out if
it’s good for us. Breakfast on Saturday
was a bacon sarnie and I discovered that it does not work for me as a pre-ride
meal, so I was touched to see that for breakfast on Sunday, Karen had made my
riding wonder meal: avocado, eggs, bacon and apples!
 |
| Lisa, Katie (Southern Enduro friend) and Karen |
Suspension setup is often looked at as a bit of a black art, and with high and low speed compression and high and low speed rebound adjustment available on some dampers it's no surprise. Jake's suspension class helped dispell some of those feelings and he showed us how to set up both our suspension forks and rear shock for our weight and the particular riding conditions. It really highlighted just how much small changes could make differences, even as a non-professional rider. .
 |
| Katie (Southern Enduro friend) checking her suspension |
Much of Saturday and Sunday Katy was coaching the group in FOD. As always Katy delivered great
coaching tailored to all our needs, but it was the addition of Adrian and
Karen’s work on positive thinking that had the biggest impact for me. I have
been working on my mind game with drop offs recently and my aim for the weekend
was to progress to non-rollable drops. Woohoo, Reader, I achieved it!
 |
| Non-rollable drops - check! |
More than
that, I finally pumped my way round an entire pump track – the one at FOD is
not short! I have been working on this skill since first trying a pump track with
BenBikes at Hadleigh Park in January and being a heart-on-my-sleeve kinda gal I
promptly burst into tears!
 |
| Pump track heaven! |
Unfortunately for us all the
weekend’s course finished around 3pm. Not
one to leave when there’s the offer of a cheeky extra ride, I headed over to
the enduro trails at the far side of FOD with Katy and Adrian on Sunday
afternoon. Wow! They are so fast, technical and fun – with my laughter ringing out
through the trees, racing to see if I could catch a glimpse of Katy ahead of
me, it was a great way to end the weekend.
 |
| Delicious lunches at Pedalabikeaway |
Holistic has been a buzz word over
recent years but it is apt here. Adrian, Karen, Katy and Jake showed us that by
weaving their fields together you can come out a better and happier rider! By
the end of the weekend I was knackered but felt I’d learned and achieved so
much and made another bunch of awesome riding mates – cheers everyone!
 |
| Yes, I have Katy's shorts! |
 |
| Pedalabikeaway has awesome bike art |
 |
| Delicious home made food |
 |
| Homemade fruit and nut trail snacks |
