Bruised But Not Broken

On Monday, I blogged about my upcoming mountain bike ride with Carrie and Elise. I was excited and apprehensive about the adventure.

It had been a few years since I went mountain biking. We started off our trek last night in a place that was familiar to me. I had been mountain biking before at Irvine Regional Park, which is the lower portion of the ride. It all came back to me and I was able to navigate the trail. I never realized that this was really the beginning of the trail ride experience. The real experience, or epic adventure as we dubbed it, was up top in Santiago Oaks, or aka as The 3B's (Three Bitches).

Carrie and Elise are pro mountain bikers compared to me. As we went up the first B, Angry Julie got off her bike and walked up. My legs were not trained for that incline, especially my calves. I could have turned around and gone to the bottom of the hill, but I sucked it up and carried forward. The girls patiently waited for me at the top of the mountain. We chatted, drank water, took pictures, and moved forward. I trekked up the rest of the ride slightly walking/riding my bike. Mostly walking though. We made it to the very top when we noticed that ooops, it was starting to get dark. We were not prepared for this. No bike lights, no head lamps, nada.

We attempted to go down the mountain. It was very sandy and rocky on the way down. We inched our way down, one step at a time. I hit some rough spots where my bike almost slid from underneath me, not good. I caught myself, and let the bike drop. We finally made it down to the very bottom of the mountainous area when we realized, oh no!! Why? Because it was dark outside, like after 8pm dark! My eyesight is not very good at night, plus we could barely see in front of us. Think {trees, bushes, things covering the trail, creatures}. Carrie entertained us with singing. I tried to make noises (mostly screaming caw caw caw). Carrie said, "Noooo you sound like a small animal. We need to be loud to scare off the mountain lions." I then screamed, "Grrrrr". I don't think it helped much.

We finally made it out onto the roadway at Irvine Park. It was about 8:40pm. We started our adventure at 6. I think secretly we were all somewhat relieved that we made our way out. We got back to our cars and stripped off our gear. I started to nurse my wounds. I walked away with a tiny blister on my ankle, and some scratches on my elbows and knees. I hopped into Angry Husband's truck and made my way home.

Within an hour, I was surprised with some wonderful pictures from Carrie. She rocks! Carrie and Elise were so awesome and patient with me. They are pretty terrific mountain bikers too.

I can't wait for the next ride, and where I will be way more prepared!

P.S. All the photos were taken by Carrie. She was brave enough to carry her SLR with her!

Mountain Biking & Text Messages

(click photo to make larger)

I met some very cool people last week, when I attended the Orange County Startup Princess event. One of the women was Carrie from This Mama Makes Stuff. I got a message from Carrie on Twitter yesterday. She asked me if I wanted to go mountain biking with the girl's on Wednesday night. I replied with yes, and that I would most likely be there, in a matter of words.

Oh, and the trail we are riding, "Three Bitches".

I'm a little apprehensive and cautious about this whole "trail ride". A few years ago, ok more than five, I had a mountain biking accident. I was riding the Whiting Ranch Trail with Angry Husband. I was coming down from a hill. I was going at a medium pace, and must have hit a rock or something. All I know is that all of the sudden I went over the handle bars of my bike and landed with the bike on top of me. It was a few minutes before Angry Husband discovered me at the bottom of the hill. He had taken a different route.

I could barely walk and thought that I broke my hip or something. I was scraped up, bruised, and in pain. I had him take me to the ER for tons of x-rays. Luckily, my hip was not broken and I would survive. My bike on the other hand, had a cracked fork, and bent pedals. My helmet was also cracked down the middle. I took my bike to REI for service. They had never seen a fork so damaged. I think it was a manufacturer's defect in reality, and not the accident. Maybe my fork caused the accident, I don't know.

I never really got on my bike after that. About six months ago, I thought maybe, I would start training for triathlons. I got my bike serviced and inspected. And there it sat, or actually hung in my garage rafters.

After tweeting Carrie, I had this texting conversation with Angry Husband. I was at work, hence the texting.

ME: Ok..I got invited to go mtn. biking wed night at 6. Am I ready?

AH: physically or psychologically?

ME: Both?

AH: lol, well your bike works fine..well it did 6 months ago when you had it tuned up. i will pull it down tonight or tomorrow and see if anything needs fixed..as for the mental aspect you are on your own..

ME: Yea, I prob need some new shorts as well.

AH: you should go for a test ride tomorrow day to get refreshed on the bike, so you don't look like a total dumbass out there and fall on your face.

Well I went into the garage this morning. Angry Husband had not checked out my mountain bike. Fail. I wrangled it down and inspected it. Sigh. Both of my tires were flat. I could not locate the pump. So I walked with the bike about a mile to the gas station.

I then went on my ride. I did about 3-4 miles around my local area. My body was not used to riding a bicycle at all. I didn't realize how bad my knees were from running. I'm a mess. I really need to stretch more. After riding, I worked on stretched out my legs/knees/body. I was also not used to the shifting.

Also, I will have to drive Angry Husband's "angry truck" to the trail site. I don't have a bike rack on my Tahoe. Sigh. My old car, I had a sweet rack.

Carrie said we would take breaks. I hope they have sympathy on me. I will have to strap my cellphone onto the front of the bike for "emergency purposes" aka "HELP!".

Wish me luck tomorrow night!