A mid-ride break, throwing small rocks into the canal, listening to them bounce across the ice
Winter rides in Virginia can be either totally pleasant, or bitterly cold. It seems like we don’t have much middle ground - and in the last few weeks, we’ve been getting the cold end of the stick!
We know that the winter semesters give us limited time to access youth: holidays and winter break see our riders out of school for weeks at a time, and sub-freezing days keep them inside or at school if the sun isn’t shining. Our team wants to ride still, but with increased indoor time spent hanging out. By the time we’ve picked everyone up, geared up and are ready to roll on our bikes, the darkness has set in and the temps have dropped significantly. Shorter sessions keep this iteration of our team happy and warm.
We chart our rides, making notes of attendance, mileage or time spent riding, and where we’ve been. While our team has taken a major shift in attendance toward a stronger female presence in the last months, the focus and interest in riding has shifted as well. Our days of summertime long road or trail rides are behind us for the moment - the ladies want to go ride BMX bikes at Taylor Farm Park! We’ve seen some really great progress with some of them, learning how to carve and flow in the bowl, but our actual rides only last about an hour. So much of the perception around cycling progress gets framed around tackling big miles or power outputs, but for this crew, we focus more on tackling features and consistent riding. An hour spent at the BMX park might only total 5-10 miles - but the handling skills honed far outshine the value of the mileage clocked there.
Greetings from the Deep End
It’s hard to stay moving in the dark and cold, so riding centers more around technique and finding joy - an hour of riding followed by zip lines and some ropes course acrobatics in the park? That’s good by us, and definitely what keeps motivation high with the team.
We’ll be back in full swing in the Spring season, with a busier docket of programming, afterschool rides, and stronger team attendance. For now we use this time to focus on our relationships, plan the coming year, and reframe our goals with our riders. We’re watching the sunset happen a little later every day, and see some 50 degree days in our future…little by little making our way back to the busier season.