Kris and I spent Saturday mountain biking at Chicopee. The day was a perfect fall day for being on the trails. Since I am new to mountain biking, we start out easy and slow. We went to the Red loop and I rode it cleanly. When we completed the Red loop; Kris took some front fork pressure out. I am still trying to gets Kris's Hardtail Litespeed setup for me. So we went to the white loop I made all the technical areas that I never had made so I was feel great and had some confidence and like the new setup. So I tried not to constantly be on my brakes. BAD mistake, I hit a root incorrectly and lost control. I am sliding and my hip nails a tree stopping the slide abruptly. OUCH, darn. I was doing so well. I was able to walk off the immediate pain and continue riding. Hense, the love hate relationship; mountain biking is a great change to the road riding. I feel like a kid playing in the dirt when I am out on the trails. It is a great workout; does not feel like I am working hard. (well most of the time) Each weekend, I get better at mountain biking but every time I try to go faster; I fall increasing my odds of getting hurt. I do not want to get an injury that will prevent me from training but I want to go faster so Kris can have a good ride; but do not want to get injured. (On a side note, we did have a fellow rider tell Kris not to let me lead on the uphills because he can not keep up on the up hills. HA HA HA)
We did continue to ride for another 2.5 hours with no more crashes. I rode areas that I never road cleanly on the coyote loop, the switch backs! I did it; it was a great day except the one crash. I felt like I had a challenging ride and felt very satisfied. I feel effects of the fall today; my neck feels like a little whiplash and hip really hurt when I did breaststroke otherwise it is just a little bothersome. So do I continue the mountain biking or give it up to reduce risk of injury...
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