Hi, Jan! I've been thinking about you! Did you check out that bike group you mentioned? How'd it go?

I went to camp with Frankie and it was absolutely amazing. They'd rented Mountain Bikes for us and the first day we set out on a ride. There were two groups and I kinda fell between the ones that had done it before and the ones that hadn't (I guess because I've been riding my roadbike) so I joined the group that had done it before. About 30 minutes into it, I thought I'd made a HUGE mistake. The altitude in Colorado and the climbs up were kicking my butt, but oh, my gosh, what an awesome feeling to be out there, actually running OVER stuff vs. trying to avoid it! It was a blast! We were out about 3 hours the first day and 3 the second day. The second day it was a lot of single track stuff and although I had to push my bike a few times, I felt so empowered! One of the trails we were riding was called the "ditch trail". On one side was a small ditch and then the side of the mountain, and on the other side, BIG DROP. I was doing ok until out of nowhere came this teeny bridge! I panicked and plowed my bike into the ditch and the side of the mountain. I have a beauty of a bruise around my entire knee, but I am so proud of it! Isn't that funny? I got back up and got back on the bike and refused to be beaten by it, no matter how scared I was. :-)

I'm heading back to AZ on Tuesday of next week. I'll probably ride with the Thursday morning group and then I need to do long on Saturday, most likely 3+ hours. Any weekend is great with me, maybe I'll try to beg a mtn bike out of my husband and ride with you all on Sunday! lol!

Talk to you soon!
Melisa