Yay Bike Ride! .... and *ow*!

Father's day weekend I also went on two bike rides with my uncle B. On the first one, I managed to fall off my bike twice.

The first time was in a spot that I walked my bike past on the way out, and thought to myself that I should be sure to get off the bike again on the way back. On the way back, I figured I was doing pretty well, and decided to try riding past the spot. It was a lump (radius similar to my bike's wheel), followed by a gully (ditto), followed by a lump (ditto). I went up, down, and half-way up. Then rolled back. My bike is a little big for me, so I couldn't stick the landing... and ended up doing a relatively slow-motion fall backwards. Advantages to falling backwards: the bike isn't in the way, and so ingrained judo falling techniques are more useful. My uncle thinks I was in the wrong gear. I think I didn't commit sufficiently, and didn't have enough experience with rough terrain. My mom thinks my brother should give me some lessons on riding my bike. (However, since he ends up in the hospital with various broken bones when he falls off the bike, I think I prefer my way.)

The second time was completely embarrassing. My uncle called for me to hold up while he checked something out. I was on a flat street, with a curb and a boulevard to the side. I decided to pull up to the curb and stop with my foot on the curb so that I didn't have to get off. Apparently my brain had ceased to work, because I was unable to dismount properly, and ended up falling on my side on the grass. I got some grass stains, two smalls scratches, and a whopper bruise.

The scratches were relatively minor, and the grass stains on my shorts not exciting enough to upload the photo. (Not when it's two weeks old.) The bruise was spectacular, but in a location that I'm not willing to photograph. (It's around the panty-line.) So, instead, here's the crushed branches from the first place I fell off the bike spectacularly on a previous trip:

(Notice all the broken branches near the trunk on the right, plus the dead/wilted stuff farther away. The mud in the upper-left corner is where the bike path is when the river isn't flooding it.)

However, the flowers were pretty:


We biked all the way to the BDI and back. (Google maps estimates the round trip to be 25 km.) I'm not sure if my falling off the bike was stupidity, lack of sleep (my uncle wanted to go before it got too hot), too much sun, or wrong blood sugar. Or a combination of all of the above.

Sadly, I didn't get on my bike last weekend due to all the stuff I had to do, and this weekend because it was too hot... plus I had too much stuff to do. Perhaps next weekend I'll be able to go for another ride. (I will need to go to bed earlier so that I can get up earlier, when it isn't as hot.)

My uncle says he'd like a video camera, plus notice about when to turn it on. :P