Mountain Bike War Wounds



 

Things in Mazama are great and I can't wait to tell you everything I've been up to!!!

 

For starters, I've been doing something active everyday after work.  For example, my awesome aunt & her friend took me mountain biking yesterday for the first time.  While it was  incredibly challenging and I was practicially in tears at parts (gear shifting + out of shape + being overly emotional + pride= Choking Back of Mandi Tears), it was incredible & I couldn't wait to go again.   It was just soooo beauuuuutiful and sometime (you know-- when I'm not falling over on hills because I'm in the wrong gear) I plan to take it all in!!!

 

Probably to my Aunt's amazement, I had such a good time I wanted to go again today on my own.  The SUPER FUN part is that I decided I was going to learn how to use bike shoes.  They clip you onto the bike and you have to twist your feet to lock yourself out of them!  I hear from my aunt they're a bit tricky to learn but that's CRAZY TALK!!!  Look at these fancy shoes!!! They're like my childhood tap shoes!  I love to tap dance of COURSE I'll love these biking shoes!!!

 

I was kind of scared but figured-- how else am I going to learn?  I decided to throw myself in!  Besides, I'm like-- SUPER coordinated... 

 

 

 

 

I was clipped in, chugging along and even  mentally high fived myself until, about a half mile in, I somehow shifted to the easiest gear of all time during a slight incline.  I'm pedalling like a mad person and think, "Oh, shoot, this isn't happening--I've got to get down!!"  I go to step down and guess what!?  MY TAP SHOES ARE CLIPPED IN TO THE @#^*%@$%^$#%^  BIKE!!! 

 

It was slow motion... Like a short, plump redwood tree, my pride and body were chopped down as I thought to myself "MY AUNT WAS RIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and completely fell over.  I laughed and thought, "Huh.  Well, that's what happens when you stay clipped in.  Okay, cool.  Just gotta clip yourself out."

 

I didn't want to give up.  I didn't want to be afraid so I decided to try again.  "Fall down nine times, stand up ten."  Fear is irrational.  Deep breath... 

"You're a 34 year old woman.  You're mother had four kids when she was 34.  You're riding a bike, for crying out loud. Lots of people bike, you can do this. It's super easy. Calm. Don't be irrational.  No biggie, you got it."

 

I fell over AGAIN!!!  I just could not figure it out with the gears and the shoes and the pedaling and the BIKING!!!!

 

 



I fell over again. 
 
And again... 

And again.  This is all on the same part of the street, mind you... Me falling over repeatedly.  Pretty awesome.

Finally, I think my fifth or sixth time as I'm about to fall over, I managed to clip myself off of the bike BUT!  It's too late... Not only do I completely slide across the gravel & eat dirt cause I'm going downhill but I keep rolling down until I'm at the bottom of a ditch. (It was a short ditch).

But I TOTALLY ACTION FILM ROLLED IT INTO A  DITCH!!!!!  BAD ASS!!!

Aaaaaand painful.  ;) If you even knew how much my can hurts...

Anyway, I took these about two hours after I got home.  I've got a bunch of scratches not pictured cause they're all pretty tame. This last picture is the one that hurts the most. You can't really tell in the picture but there's a round swollen black & blue mark forming under the scratch on my wrist.  It feels like I got nailed with a hammer.  It has serious potential to be really pretty in a day or two!!!  I do declay-ah!

Sooooo I'm thinkin' we're gonna go for the normal pedals tomorrow. Or maybe next week.  Oh my God, my ass hurts so bad...  ;)

'As you wiiiiiiiiiiiish,' 
Mandi