I really wish I invented this phrase, but I picked it up from an mtbr poster sixsixtysix.

I could not get anything on this ride. I was by myself at 3:30 going up National, and took about 6 cracks at everything I could not get, and I could not get any of it. Not the first hard section at the very bottom, or the next one 2 minutes up, or the 4-lift before the split, or the upper Waterfall. But other than these four (3 actually, its the Lower Waterfall I’ve never gotten), I have gotten everything on the climb to Buena Vista. But not today, today I could not get shit after 5 or 6 cracks at all of it. My worn rear Maxxis Ignitor did not help, but I did just score two incl shipping for $34 on Ebay.

I got a few things I don’t normally get, and unlocked a few new puzzles, or found a piece to making them one piece closer to unlocking the puzzle. Remembering each move is always a challenge, as National is so dense with features. Rides on National always go better when you’re riding National a lot. There is a large steep boulder just before the junction with Mormon that you can flow up if you time your pass between two adjacent rocks so as not to get a pedal smack; a series of 5 large rocks forming a perfect line going down the right side of the trail just below The Couch; the jump off the Nose is easy if you spot the take-off quickly enough to line up the landing into a rutted out pitch. Three or 4 others rush to mind, but they all sound the same on paper — the mental map and my retention of it is what makes National so special.

Unless I fall backwards off something, which *nod to the MTB Karma Gods* happens rarely now, it only takes a few wins to make a good climb. I like technical climbing the way I like video games – you try something, you miss, you hit restart and try again, things explode and there are cool effects, and then you try to crack the next nut. I almost never feel like I’m not going to get something, and think after I get it I’m getting the next one and the next one all the way to the top. The result is not the point; I love the game, so I’m always upbeat about it.

Down is another story. i hustle better than I flow, find my game easier going up and lose it easier coming down, momentum and gravity ganging up on me. I rolled up on the Spine and was overcome with fear for the first time in a month, and I was pissed, and pissed that getting pissed would get even more in the way of my being calm. I stopped and reset to the same result, until the third time I just focused on the line and the technique and hit it. Sometimes flow is worth more than technique, sometimes technique is finding flow. Things went better from there, at least they felt better, which is all that matters. I took a few shots at the entrance line to a ridonculous trial Bob showed me last week, and scoped out how to practice the exit line for next time. I think, someday,I can get it. I took 6 shots at the entrance to the high line on the Bermuda Triangle and while I did not clean it I got up and into it and off my bike 6 times without incident.

It was enough to make my ride.