Falling down and looking ahead

Last week I was out for a nice long mountain bike ride.  I had some new confidence after riding in Moab and the ride was going great.  On the way back with maybe 30 mins to go, I was coming downhill and making a turn.  The next thing I know, my face is hitting the ground and I am flipping over.  I got up, took my helmet off, cried for 30 seconds, checked out the scrapes and bruises on my knees, arm, hands, felt pain in my neck.  Then realized I had to get home somehow, and put my helmet back on and road home.  My face looked the worst--a huge bruise on the right side of my chin with some swelling.  I had promised Adam I would go watch him race, so he bandaged me up and then we drove off to Boulder for his crit.

My right hand and my arms, shoulders and neck hurt the most.  I took Tylenol right away when I got home which helped some, but watching the race, especially with Mickey who did not want to sit still, got more painful as time went on. Thankfully it was only an hour race!  People were looking at me funny--oh yeah, my chin. Most people, I've found won't ask about facial injuries.  Some, but not many.  A few people asked if I had raced earlier in the women's race.  If I had fallen on my face on the road, I think I would have lost a lot of skin. I even noticed throughout the week that people rarely ask--only a few people that I know well asked what happened to my face--It's impossible to miss, while most people just looked and then smiled.  Yes, you were caught staring.  Not that I care, I got sick of talking about it, it is just interesting watching how people behave in certain situations.

It all left me pretty sore in my upper body for days.  I took Sunday off, and then Monday super easy and still felt pretty crummy.  I started coming around by Tuesday and while the bruises are still there, the only think bothering me from the crash is my right hand and my left forearm.  

I got back out mountain biking on Wednesday and had a cautious but good ride (no falls) and then headed out yesterday for a 3+ hour ride.  I wanted to ride the full length of the trail that I didn't quite do last week.  I rode conservatively and felt good and fell once towards the end but not hard when I tried to make a tight u turn up a hill.  So, the ride left me feeling pretty good.  I rode 3:10 which is my longest mountain bike ride yet.  My forearms got really sore!

Yesterday Adam roller bladed to the dog park with Mickey and Frito.  He does this pretty frequently.  On the way back Frito's foot got roller bladed over and he had a little paw injury.  Poor little guy.  Adam bandaged it up and he seemed to be walking normally again this morning, so I took him on my team run today.  We ran a hilly and rock trail run and the first half of the run (a lot of uphill!!!), Frito was doing great.  Not running ahead of me like usual, but at my pace.  Then we started descending and he was not liking it.   So it was a slow run back on the downhills.  His paw was really hurting him but we had to get back.  He was a trooper.

After running a few of the girls went to mountain bike ride.  I was a little nervous because I've never ridden in that park before and I didn't want to crash and ruin every one's ride. I hung at the back and went at my own pace.  I was a bit slower because I was tentative going over things and wanted some space to see what I was going to ride over.  We made it a couple miles and then Kathy got a flat.  4 of us and we didn't have what we needed to fix it.  Whoops!  Lesson learned was to be better prepared.  she headed back and eventually got her tire fixed.  We kept going but I was pretty tired from the day riding before and running and swimming.  So I didn't go to far and just kept it at a moderate pace.  I'd rather go a little slow for now and build my confidence than push it and crash again. 

I'm still not 100% sure of my race schedule yet, but I'll probably figure it out in the next few weeks. I have most of it figured out.  I may do a 5k in April called the Pi Mile. It's put on by the Colorado School of Mines Math club and benefits a scholarship fund. I always like helping out the math geeks since I am one myself and benefited greatly from math scholarships. 

April looks to be a busy month--my family is visiting one weekend, then the next Adam's is coming out for his cousin's wedding, I'll do a race or two, Adam has lots of races, I have a test, and I'm probably missing something here.  Should be an interesting month.