Irulan - I hugged a Tree today!!!
Stephanie aka Snowtulip took me out MTB'ng today and OMG - can you say Amazing?? Awesome?? Empowered?? a Blast?? First and foremost I want to thank Steph - talk about an awesome teacher. By the time she was done teaching me I was bunny-hopping and having a blast! She took me through stuff I would've Never tried on my own - and yeah I didn't make it through all of it! :o There was some really nasty sand that I just could Not get through - it was also my first and biggest fall!!....wheeeee!! I also misjudged the space the track took between some tress and ending up using the tree to slingshot myself through them! WHEEEEEEEEEE it was sooooo awesome! Steph would find fun stuff like a huge tree root and show me how to go over it, and then watch me and coach me until I got it right! (cept for that doggone sand which I Am gonna go back and conquer - you just watch!) She also taught me how to bunny hop on the flat sections and then found some stuff that I could hop over so I could put what I had practiced into play. It was soooo much fun!! About halfway through I decided I should probably let some air out of my tires since they were inflated for the road and that made a huge difference. I've also decided I need a different pair of gloves than what I had on, the track was pretty rutted from the horses and the bouncing has left my hands a little sore. But the rest of me did NOT want to stop. (thank goodness for the voice of reason and for the prescence of Steph!) We've already set up another time to ride and I'm counting the days! And I did take the bike into my LBS to have it checked out after his first day in the sandbox!! By the time we were done Everything was dusty - even the inside pockets of my Camelback! It was just - ---------- now I know why you MTB'ers don't wanna switch to road bikes!!!
and yet Another TYVM to Steph
I had the road bike out today and reached a section of the street (not marked btw) that was all torn up and muddy and just sucked. By the time I reached the mud it was too late to turn back. My first thought was "I can do this...this is just like riding the MTB thru the sand, don't fight the mud, don't fight the bike, just let it happen and help him decide where I want him to go". Poor Allez, the mud was pretty thick and he started to bog down and at one point started sliding toward an Eki-attacker of a pothole but I just eased him back over and just kept pedalling. We made it out just fine with nothing worse than some muddy tires! Thanks again Steph, prior to our outing I would've panicked and either tried to stop the bike or muscle my way thru it.
