Bike Day 3
Oct. 15th, 2005 11:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterbadgerYeah, at some point I'm going to stop thinking of these as "events" :-) But...
The cats actually let me sleep in until 9. I fed them and, feeling intensely out of sorts, went out to ride my bike, so as to blow some of the bleah out of my head.
And it worked, to a certain extent. The field I ususlly start off in was boggy from all the rain, so I went straight to trail riding and went west on the Accotink Creek Trail from Prosperity to Pickett and back again, then from Prosperity to Woodburn. I passed a number of people, went over three bridges (twice each, though Rupert insisted on running into the side rail of the last one rather hard, leaving me with handlebar stomach). Took about an hour or so. I successfully persuaded the bike not to run off the trail at several points, and not to hit several pedestrians. On the whole, though, this was too late in the day for me to be out on the trail--too many people. I stopped and talked to an elderly couple who were out walking who are very afraid of bikes. I am very afraid of pedestrians at this point! I need to spend some more time practicing in empty parking lots, or on the trail when there aren't many people about.
But I had a good time, and I feel slightly better than I was this morning.
The cats actually let me sleep in until 9. I fed them and, feeling intensely out of sorts, went out to ride my bike, so as to blow some of the bleah out of my head.
And it worked, to a certain extent. The field I ususlly start off in was boggy from all the rain, so I went straight to trail riding and went west on the Accotink Creek Trail from Prosperity to Pickett and back again, then from Prosperity to Woodburn. I passed a number of people, went over three bridges (twice each, though Rupert insisted on running into the side rail of the last one rather hard, leaving me with handlebar stomach). Took about an hour or so. I successfully persuaded the bike not to run off the trail at several points, and not to hit several pedestrians. On the whole, though, this was too late in the day for me to be out on the trail--too many people. I stopped and talked to an elderly couple who were out walking who are very afraid of bikes. I am very afraid of pedestrians at this point! I need to spend some more time practicing in empty parking lots, or on the trail when there aren't many people about.
But I had a good time, and I feel slightly better than I was this morning.
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no subject
Date: 2005-10-18 07:02 pm (UTC)We're going to have to teach you to jump with your bike. At least how to jump your front wheel.
You might want to try the W&OD trail sometime. Paved, smooth and wide (about 8 feet.) If you catch the right part of it at the right time, there aren't many people on it. At other times it can get a little crowded, but not bad if you are going slow.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-18 07:21 pm (UTC)I was thinking that I just need to take a day off sometime and find some good times and places that are unpopulated (or sparsely populated) and then rejigger my schedule so I get to those at least several times a week. I need to be riding more than once a week if I'm going to improve, I think.
Plus I just do need to spend some time doing the parking-lot thing. I need to improve basic stability skills (after all, that's what's kept me from riding all these years--my crappy sense of balance) and practice simple stuff like turns, stops, acc-/de-celration &c. There's a couple of office parks up the road from me that look pretty empty on evenings and weekends, probably more so than schools (the traditional venue, but now busy places on weekends).
But I'll check out the W&OD one of these days. It runs not too far from me, across Cedar Lane.