I've been pretty scared about going up hills because there is always a down side. I feel like I'm going down head first and everything in my self preserving body screams 'thats not safe'. My fear is so bad that I usually end up slowing the bike way down when descending. It does not help that when I first got the bike the brakes were bad. Its taking me a while to trust myself and to get the feel of the bike.

I decided I'd tackle my fear a little bit. I went up the long side of the hill, so I would not have the long descent. Turns out the ascent was not much....so doing it in reverse would not have been as big a deal as what my mind made it to be. But the downhill on the long ascent was short and sweet. I didn't pedal and I sat up as un-aerodynamically as possible and I did not hit the brakes once. I got up to 25 mph. I was pretty scared but exhilarated at the same time. There was a side wind that was rattling at my bike a bit. It was amazing, I felt like I was flying. Later on the same ride, I had a Zen moment on the bike. I was in perfect balance going the perfect speed...it felt like kind of like zero gravity. I didn't weight anything and the bike did not either, there were no bumps in the road.

I know I'll never be a speed demon but it felt really good to address my fear and to have such an amazing experience on the bike