Living Colorfully

"So, uh, the guys say you might have crashed on your ride yesterday...."
"Might of? Oh no, I definitely, definitely did." Good news is that I remember it. It was the first crash since the big crash where it was more than me just falling over and getting a bruise. It was my first time on that particular trail and I might have gotten a little a head of myself. It starts with about an hour climb up to the top, which because of this the trial is never super crowded. At the top you loop back and around and get sling shotted back on to part of the trail you climbed up. Descending was incredible, we started on swooping, fast, smooth, morning cup of coffee trail then it connects into a section that is a little more

Time to restock...

rough with sharper turns and bigger drops. I had cleared everything and was about to hit the last drop before you cross a creek climb up a bit and then are essentially done. I had a little too much speed and wasn't far enough back so I essentially hucked myself and my bike off, but forgot to roll. My shoulder took the brunt of it followed by my hip, knee and lastly my head. My head was more of a slide across the trail and not a full contact. It still made me nervous so I crawled off to the side of the trail and just sat there. I told one of the guys I was riding with, "I just need a minute, I'm sure I'm fine I just want to make sure my head is still normal." He picked up my bike and started making sure it wasn't damaged. The other two guys I was with came up behind and one mentioned it was a good thing I crashed otherwise he probably would of. I guess I'm just good at taking one for the team. I took the rest of the trail pretty easy, just hiking up to the top and riding a little more slowly than was probably necessary. One of the guys asked me if my head was okay. I replied, "Well I know my name and what year it is so that's a good sign." I did dent my helmet, nothing bad but the integrity has been compromised and figured it's not worth risking. Plus I did have another helmet for riding my Superfly so that's been pulling double duty lately. My dad called early the next morning so I mentioned something to him but didn't tell my mom right away because wanted to figure out if A.) I was completely fine (which I am) or B.) would need to go to the doctor before I took years off her life. Someone in the mumble jumble between my parents it got lost in translation and my mom ended up thinking I went to the ER after the crash which probably took more years off her life than if I had told her from the start. 

Stopping to smell the flowers...

I did a long ride on my Superfly the other day about 30 miles round trip and all on single track which was awesome. Unfortunately about 5 miles into it I stopped and ended up chatting with this guy for a good 25 minutes about Leadville and a world of other things and apparently was so engrossed in the conversation that I forgot to shut my garmin off, completely killing my average speed for the ride. Such is life. It was a nice training ride and hadn't had any hiccups until I was about 50ft from the initial parking lot coming back in

Done. 

when I almost ran over a snake that had slithered onto the trail. I screamed and then realized how silly that was because no one could hear me. I was giggling about it when I reached the parking lot and a guy there said, "looks like you had some fun up on the trail." 

The next morning I did a road ride with one of the guys from the shop. Every time I tell him about a snake I see on the ride he asks me why I don't bring it into the shop. When we were leaving we were talking about the snake incident that I had on the ride the night before, he informed me that he has rarely seen a snake on a road ride and not often on a mountain ride. We ended up running into three during the ride. Each time it went about the same way, he would inform me there was a snake up ahead and I would drop back behind him and to the outside and say, "oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness...." until we passed it. At the end he told me he thought I was the one attracting the snakes. Now people at the shop call me snake lady. 

I did a long ride on my road bike early last week. It ended up being about 50 miles over 4 hours with lots of climbing thrown in. I started out thinking I was going to go one route and then ended up missing a turn and ended up in a completely different direction than I had intended. The thought had occurred to me to turn around and get a little less mileage but to know where I was but for some reason I kept going. Lucky I did, I ended up in the town about 18 miles outside of Boulder after getting there in the most round about way and

realizing it was Monday. Most people don't know but the Carousel of Happiness is open all day on Monday's, other than that its hit or miss if it is actually open. The carousel is one of my favorite places, this man hand carved all these wondrous figurines that make up the carousel and then just put it in this town for people to enjoy. I realized that with most of my trajectory in life I may not have gone where I intended but I think I ended up where I needed to be. 

I did the Big Mick this past weekend but have been pretty bad about posting so wanted to get this one up. It won't be as long between my postings again, mainly so my parents know I'm staying out of the ER. 

Final thoughts.