Tuesday, June 20, 2006

...and the blood to prove it!

I feel like a real Coloradan now. Saturday I bought my first mountain bike and tested it out this week. Monday I rode around Barr Lake which is about 20 minutes north of my house in Brighton. Stupid easy trail, but it let me adjust the bike a little.

Then today my friend Ryan from work and I went up to Evergreen and rode the Three Sisters trail. It totally kicked my butt. All the biking I've done over the years proved no help in preparing me for the world of pedaling up a mountain. Even with all the roading I've got under my belt and all the charity races we did in college, I still felt like I'd never sat on a bike seat before.

The technique is so totally different - you have to sit differently, pedal differently, gear differently - but it's so much fun! The fast drop down is completely worth the agony going up. But the trail did try to win today. We were going downhill and came to a switchback. I tried to pedal it but took a total digger on the turn. Good thing I was wearing my helmet (always) because my head landed on a rock, my knees were all bloody and I ripped a fingernail off. But the worst part is I had chapstick in my pocket, so now I have the perfect tube-sized bruise on my thigh surrounded by road rash.

And yet I can't wait to get out there and do it again. (And hopefully not suck as much wind next time.) Woo-hoo!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lame post. You can't talk about MTB and say what all the crashing and blood without any pics.

B said...

Next time...because I'm SURE there will be a next time.