every bruise is a badge of courage
on my birthday, i wanted to do some geocaching. after 3 unsuccessful attempts by myself earlier in the day, i went out with parley again after he got off work. the three new caches we looked for were all in the same park, one with a lot of bike trails. parley thought it would be a good idea to take our bikes down there to expedite our search.
parley let me borrow one of his mountain bikes, and good thing he did because the trails we ended up going on were pretty rough. we spent 2 hours in the park, found 2 of the 3 geocaches, and biked home in the dark. i got pretty beat up on our trek. i fell once- i couldnt keep my balance on a hill and fell over- not too bad. my pedals kept hitting my legs, and i'd get hit by branches and brambles and other things on the trail. but it was fun. so so fun, and i felt like i had really pushed myself to do something, and that felt good. parley and another friend of ours were going riding the next day, so i said i'd go with them. we took a harder trail, one with a lot of hills and sharp turns. i couldnt keep up very well (i had to walk my bike up most of the larger hills), but i think i did pretty well for a beginner.
at one point we came to a part of the trail where a small tree had fallen and was in the way. parley told me to just hop over it, just like hopping over a curb. i backed up a little and got some speed.....my front wheel went over, but my back wheel got stuck. i kind of flew over the handle bars, and my leg got twisted up in the bike. hitting the ground wasnt bad, but the bike hitting my leg hurt. when i got home, i noticed a nasty bruise forming. that was sunday. i took the following picture last night.
i think it kind of looks like antarctica. the lighter areas are more swollen and hurt to touch, but the edges are ok. you can see my speckled calf where the pedals would hit. my right leg was the one that didnt get caught, and it's pretty much unscathed.
on tuesday i went out biking again. just on some basic flat trails (some of the mkt, some of the mu rec. trail. see map here). i took my bike this time, which has a much bigger frame and bigger wheels. i felt a little unsteady at first, since i was up higher, and when i rounded a street corner my front wheel slid out from under me and i almost fell over. i put out my arm to try and brace myself on a fence, and ended up hitting my wrist pretty bad. i kept riding, but after a while noticed this huge goose egg forming where i hit it. i could move my wrist without any pain, so i knew it was ok, but a huge bruise formed around the bump. below is a picture i took last night. the swelling is mostly gone, but the bruise is still prevalent.
before all of this happened, i had such a fear of falling or injuring myself. but now, ive had the experience of falling, and it wasnt so bad. i think i'm riding with more confidence now because i know what to expect, rather than expecting the unknown.
parley let me borrow one of his mountain bikes, and good thing he did because the trails we ended up going on were pretty rough. we spent 2 hours in the park, found 2 of the 3 geocaches, and biked home in the dark. i got pretty beat up on our trek. i fell once- i couldnt keep my balance on a hill and fell over- not too bad. my pedals kept hitting my legs, and i'd get hit by branches and brambles and other things on the trail. but it was fun. so so fun, and i felt like i had really pushed myself to do something, and that felt good. parley and another friend of ours were going riding the next day, so i said i'd go with them. we took a harder trail, one with a lot of hills and sharp turns. i couldnt keep up very well (i had to walk my bike up most of the larger hills), but i think i did pretty well for a beginner.
at one point we came to a part of the trail where a small tree had fallen and was in the way. parley told me to just hop over it, just like hopping over a curb. i backed up a little and got some speed.....my front wheel went over, but my back wheel got stuck. i kind of flew over the handle bars, and my leg got twisted up in the bike. hitting the ground wasnt bad, but the bike hitting my leg hurt. when i got home, i noticed a nasty bruise forming. that was sunday. i took the following picture last night.
i think it kind of looks like antarctica. the lighter areas are more swollen and hurt to touch, but the edges are ok. you can see my speckled calf where the pedals would hit. my right leg was the one that didnt get caught, and it's pretty much unscathed.
on tuesday i went out biking again. just on some basic flat trails (some of the mkt, some of the mu rec. trail. see map here). i took my bike this time, which has a much bigger frame and bigger wheels. i felt a little unsteady at first, since i was up higher, and when i rounded a street corner my front wheel slid out from under me and i almost fell over. i put out my arm to try and brace myself on a fence, and ended up hitting my wrist pretty bad. i kept riding, but after a while noticed this huge goose egg forming where i hit it. i could move my wrist without any pain, so i knew it was ok, but a huge bruise formed around the bump. below is a picture i took last night. the swelling is mostly gone, but the bruise is still prevalent.
before all of this happened, i had such a fear of falling or injuring myself. but now, ive had the experience of falling, and it wasnt so bad. i think i'm riding with more confidence now because i know what to expect, rather than expecting the unknown.
posted by suz at 3:17 PM
2 Comments:
Glad you didn't break anything. Is a helmet included in your standard riding gear?
Looks like fun. MA bruises very easily. That's what we tell the social services people anyway.
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