More haste less speed

Spring '11, rather good so far eh? Rode into work offroad monday, lovely, the (longer diversionary) ride home was slightly marred by some knob blocking the trails with branches and logs. Tool! Straight to and from work tuesday, nice. Tuesday night I met Si and Johnnie at rivi, climbed to the pike where we met 3 mtb girls discussing the porn photo shoot they had passed on the way up! A nakid young lady getting her picture taken, some wierdo/stalker came over with his tackle out (which apparently was bedecked with elastic bands) and she let him kiss her breasts. Hmmm, dunno how accurate their story was but very amusing anyway. We went over to winter hill down san marino, up san marino, down the shoulder, along the cobbled road (still plenty of puddles, how?!) and down ICR where I nearly went OTB somehow. Johnnie split there me and Si descended to the barn I stopped at the gate then heard a very loud clattering. Si's rear wheel had pinch flatted rather badly at about 25mph and his back wheel took a battering in the time it took to stop - eek.

Yesterday Burk came out of hibernation and we took a trip down to Lee Quarry. His first ride in 6 months and my legs were toast, well matched then! First half of red route, a quick play in the skills area then a trek up to crag quarry. It's a long way, surface hasn't been tamped down yet either so hard going. We did a loop of crag, there's been an extra little bit added but unfortunatley winter has taken it's toll. Quite a lot of top surface has been washed away on some berss exposing the rocks beneath which then dislodge and scatter around the trail. Still a good run and burk gave it the thumbs up. Back to LQ. Lots of new stuff near the pump track, a bigger jumpier pump track that I couldn't ride properly. A bmx-esque track and some practice step down jumps of varying size, awesome just what I need. Unfortunatley the middle and larger ones you land and immediatley hit a berm, no chance to right yourself so if you land a little wonky you're probably gonna stack. Doesn't seem right to me, I reckon practice stuff should have nice smooth run in and out, once you've got the manouver dialled then you try the same move "in situ"
Ho hum. We were both pretty tired so finished with a full run of the red from the top of the quarry, pretty good until I hit the jumps at the bottom, going too fast landed a little dodgy on the entrance to a right/left chicane, bottled it grabbed a fistful of brake and straightlined the chicane, over a berm, off course and nearly stacked. Idiot. I need to smarten up, my 3 point plan is:
1. Ease off the speed slightly and i'll retain much more control.
2. when it goes pear shaped dont tense up, stay relaxed.
3. stop grabbing brakes when the afore mentioned fruit based situations occur.
Gorgeous day, gentle intro for burk and ice cream on the way home, hawkshaw village shop does fredericks mmmmm rum and raisin.