Falling with grace.
This saying can mean so many things, and this weekend it took on multiple meanings for me.I looked up what the Definition of 'fall' meant on the lovely web and here are a few definitions that may have pertained to me this weekend.
1. fall
to drop or descend under the force of gravity, as to a lower place through loss or lack of support.
8. fall
to succumb to temptation or sin, esp. to become unchaste.
25. fall
to collapse; topple.
59. fall
to apply oneself; begin.
Let's just say a lot happened this weekend for me. I finally grew some courage and did something I never would have done, so for this example I choose to apply the definition of beginning to apply oneself by falling away from the emotional constraints that have been holding me back.
Next, I have fallen into temptation by falling off of my clean diet through the indulgence of a few beers, and an amazingly wonderful caramel covered sundae from Leatherbys (after a 40 mile bike ride).
And don't worry, I am saving the big one - I feel down on my bike... and it hurt.
I was enjoying a second day of torturing myself on my bike. Saturday was a grueling day of hill training back and forth on my bike and my feet... my goal was to keep my legs spinning and keep my legs going in a running motion - regardless of speed, which I achieved.
And today, I agreed to meet a guy out on the bike trail for a fun bike ride - little did I know he wanted to ride at least 30 miles to meet his 100 mile quota for the week. So, we started our fun bike ride quite early in the morning and started up at the top of Beal's point and worked our way down the river. 20 miles later (which meant we would be riding 40 miles today) my legs were starting to quiver (they were a bit spent from the day before) but the worst part was knowing that we were going to have to turn around and backtrack back UP that big ass hill in order to get back to the cars.
Not wanting to show any sign of my body beginning to falter, we took a quick 5 minute GU break and we began to ride back.
Our goal was to go about 15 miles to get to the place were we were to have lunch. About 10 miles in, we
Let me first explain that this was a a very tight squeeze on the bike path and both lanes had narrowed, well when they suddenly just stopped , the guy I was riding with was started doing a half ass balancing stop still clipped in and well I had to slam my brakes and figure out how I was going to balance myself as well.. In reality I should have just swerved into the other lane but fathom that, a biker was coming from the opposite direction which prevented me from doing so and he also noticed that the situation did not look good.
Well, gravity took on a toll on my balancing act and BOOM, there I go straight to the ground! I almost brought down the guy I was riding with who attempted to reach out for me as I gracefully fell, and I almost toppled over on the guy in the opposite lane. Luckily, he was able to swerve into the gravel and the guy I was with managed to unclip without falling down as well. But the best part, the idiots who caused the accident didn't say a thing, they kinda just gave us look of disgust (I am assuming it was because of the profanity that was spewing from my mouth, but really what other word can you use when your whole entire body is like in a slow motion fall to the ground and you can't do one damn thing about it because your feet are stuck to your pedals.)
So as you can see, this was quite embarrassing for many reasons. Number one reason, um.... I just met this guy last week. My bike was pretty banged up and something just wasn't right with it. But, I sucked it up, laughed it off and got back on my bike. (Unfortunately, we got to a point where we had to pass these idiots again and this time they had a third idiot with them... We both say "on your left", and the dumb a$$ tries to move into the left lane almost causing a second collision... Aaargghhh- we all know my thoughts on following the rules of the bike trail....and they are the ones who need a big lesson in bike etiquette.)
During the next 5 miles, I felt like I was struggling quite a bit, my legs were shaking on the hills and I was out of breath. I attributed this to the fact my fall from grace caused my heart to race and my adrenaline levels to rise. We finally made it to the restaurant, which by the way had a 40 minute wait... granted, it was Father's day and gorgeous outside. We patiently waited and finally I was quite relieved when my legs no longer had to stand and I could sit down.
Enjoying a nice hour long brunch with good company, it was time to gear up and finish those last 5 miles of pure straight up steep hills. With my stomach full and the power of the hot sun blaring straight down on me, I told myself - Lori, you have to make it up this hill - no matter what! My bike still felt a bit off and as we began our assent upwards, I noticed that even though I have ridden this part of the bike trail numerous times, this quite possibly was the hardest climb of my life. My heart was pounding in my head, my breath was panting, and I was about to enter the puke zone with the food I had just consumed. As we made it to almost the top, a biker had crashed and we were forced to get off of our bikes to walk around the ambulance. I noticed that as I was walking my bike, my bike didn't want to move, it was like someone was pushing it in the opposite direction and there was a lot of resistance. Ding Ding Ding - we both finally realized that my fall had jammed my front brakes and my brake pads were rubbing on my front wheel - WTF! - No wonder I felt like I was going to die on those last hills, I was riding hills with my brakes on. (Emily, I now know your pain of the duathlon we did).
As we FINALLY arrived back at the cars, I decided I needed to go cool my legs in the water. YUCK! The lake water was warm (not a bad thing is you are swimming, but if you are looking forward to the feeling of an ice bath, it just make you want to puke more.) We said are goodbye's and I came home and passed out for 2 hours, then woke up to indulge in an awesome veggie burger and yummy ice cream sundae.
So that is my story of gracefully falling. (Falling in front of a new guy I just met, followed by riding with my brakes on up hills). Does anyone else have any great memorable stories of gracefully falling?
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