Posts Tagged ‘Mountain Biking’

Blogging about not blogging…

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

It’s been months since I’ve written anything coherent enough to post here. Many days, I haven’t been together enough to write my name. And yet, for all that, I’m still hanging in.

You see, the first weekend in April is the last time I did any exercise that didn’t result in at least mild discomfort within hours. Somewhere in the week preceding Easter, I did something, or more likely a combination of somethings, that caused pain in my lower back.

It took 5 or 6 weeks of chiropractic and medical care to be healed enough for me to resume most of my activities. Long enough to lose most of my cardio conditioning and a fair amount of muscle tone. And, even though I’m able to do almost everything I used to be able to do, there are many more limits on how much and how often I can do things like run 6 miles or ride the trails on my mountain bike.

Add that to a crisis in my home life and what I got was depression. An ever deepening fog that sucked me in and blanketed my days. Makes it tough to do the basics, almost impossible to do what moves you forward and blind to the light at the end of tunnel.

Fortunately for me, my business is fitness. So, sooner or later, the basics of my day includes exercise. Hard, sweat inducing, heart-pounding, muscle-tiring exercise. Daily! Because I advertised the classes in the moments I was lucid enough to realize I had to. And slowly, the daily dose of endorphins are performing their magic. The fog is lifting.

Not all day and not every day. But enough to see the path that God seems to be leading me on. Enough to see encouragement in the response to my running classes (still a month away). Enough to be grateful for my friends and students (often one and the same) and, finally, enough to put fingers to keyboard to write again.

So, now, I’ll shut down for now, get myself out of the car, drag my bike out of the back and thank God for this gorgeous, slightly cooler and drier morning and go get me a dose of endorphins —- and since I’m riding alone, maybe even a bunch of adrenalin!

This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

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Posted in Adventures in Living, Friendship, Injuries, Mountain Biking | No Comments »

Trees don’t get scared…

Monday, March 8th, 2010

Perhaps I should remember certain facts more often… One thing that I know but don’t bother to think about very often is that trees don’t get scared. Not even if you ride directly at them on a mountain bike. Not even if you yell at them. At least, they don’t get scared enough to move out of the way.

Trees probably don’t get scared because they KNOW that you won’t really damage them if you do hit them. In fact, they’re pretty sure that you’ll walk away the loser. And, you know something, THEY’RE RIGHT! Running into a tree hurts!

How did this come to mind this week? Well, you see, it all started when I couldn’t find my biking gloves – something which actually happened months ago, and I stopped riding with hand protection. But, yesterday, out riding with a friend, I managed to get a briar vine running through my fingers (ring and middle) as I was riding. And it was doing a pretty painful thing to my hand. So, my attention was pretty well diverted.

And so was my direction. To the other side of the trail and a bit beyond… and there was the tree.

It didn’t move.

My brakes didn’t stop me fast.

I screamed at the tree.

It still didn’t move.

My brakes still didn’t slow me fast enough.

Lessons learned?

1. Protect yourself. My head was fine. I had a helmet (never ride without one, road or trail!). But my arm is scraped, my wrist is jammed, and of course, there’s a nasty tear between 2 fingers. If I’d had gloves, or even mentioned it to my friend and she’d lent me a pair, this wouldn’t have happened.

2. Pay attention. Don’t be distracted by small discomforts. Especially when bigger, nastier dangers lurk.

3. Trees don’t move. Rocks are gonna be there. The planet doesn’t care. Adventure sports can be a blast. But sometimes, you come out on the short end. Be ready for it. Anticipate it, but don’t fear it. Minimize the damage and move on. I rode for another half hour, then went running on those same trails for another hour. Had a blast. Feel a bit stiff and sore this morning, so I’m going golfing.

Stay safe out there!

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Posted in Adventure Racing, Adventures in Living, Courage, Mountain Biking | 3 Comments »

Courage in Action!

Monday, November 30th, 2009

Sometime around April, I met Nicky, when she joined one of my beginning running classes. This fall, Nicky decided to run the Callaway Gardens 10k and started training with me for the race. She was doing great, running almost 6 miles when “it” happened. The unexpected injury. Out of the blue. While running. A muscle tear. 3 weeks before the race. We talked via email and Facebook and the news felt grim. Nicky sucked it up. And did what the doctor told her.

AND, when the doctor told her a week before the race she could run, she opted to go. We talked before and she agreed to take it easy. And she went. And ran. The whole thing. And finished. Slow, and one step at a time, she did it.

Did that make a difference in the next part of the story? I don’t know. I believe that success breeds success; that we learn to succeed. I also believe that the more courage we find in ourselves, the more we have in there to find.

She got an invitation to go mountain biking with friends. She called me up to take her riding BEFORE so she could learn the basics. After an intro to the basics, we rode the first mile and I could see her growing skill and confidence.

Then, we headed over try one of the bridges. They are a bit tricky and I wanted her to try them in a controlled setting, rather than with a group of experienced friends. I showed her once and then walked down to coach her. After a couple of successful attempts, we both started relaxing. Of course, that’s when everything went wrong.

The next time across she slipped out towards the edge of the bridge and all I could do was watch as she came off the bridge, hit the bank of the stream and went over her handlebars. It was clear that this was not a good thing. Minutes passed as we dealt with the aftermath, with Nicky’s foggy memory of what happened and with the physical realities of her fall.

But here’s where Nicky shines! I could only talk her into promising that she’d go to the doctor or ER if the fog didn’t lift. After checking the basics, we walked our bikes out to the road. And then, she really surprised me. She insisted on riding back to the cars, and then to trying just a bit of gentle off-road riding. Then, she insisted that she was ready for another lesson in just a couple of weeks!

While I don’t recommend by-passing the doctor (and Nicky has been to see the doctor and is again following the doctor’s instructions!), I am in awe of Nicky’s courage and grace. What could have been a disastrous crash, she turned into an adventure and a learning experience. What could have turned her off forever, she turned into a gateway. Her last words to me as I left her with her family were “I was having fun right up to that point. And I’m looking forward to going riding again. Promise we’ll go?”

Find your courage! Dare to try! Follow Nicky’s lead!

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Posted in Adventures in Living, Courage | No Comments »