LAUREN: First off, thanks to everyone who has posted comments and shared thoughts and ideas regarding riding and fundraising. I enjoy hearing from you and am so inspired by what each of you are doing too. Keep'em coming!
Now to the update...
Last week was a complete blur for me due to a busy work week, which was followed by a busy weekend. To be honest, last week was a bit of a challenge because it wasn't the typical week for me. At the end of the week, I had a trip scheduled to Washington, D.C., to conduct a site visit for our upcoming LIVESTRONG Day event. It was a short trip, but action-packed no less. I would like to say that I held to my "only two days of working late" but it didn't happen...and I'm okay with that (sort of). The reality was that while I was traveling and away from the office, the emails kept coming and deadlines needed to be met. It happens and I'm okay with that...for that week.
As we headed into the weekend, my husband took me out for a nice sushi dinner at Beluga and we enjoyed spending some time together. We are co-presidents for our neighborhood association and we had recently organized a crime prevention meeting for our neighorbors on Thursday. I was traveling, but my husband conducted the event on his own and we discussed what we wanted to do next. Overall, he was pleased with the turnout, and I was happy that it went so well for him.
Saturday brought our quarterly "Adopt-a-Trail" clean-up along the creek in our neighborhood. We had five neighbors show up and we spent about two hours picking up cans and snack wrappers that had washed down with the recent rains. Saturday also happened to be "Dumpster Day" in the city so we managed to do a little cleaning of our house too. I was really tired that night, so I headed to bed early and proceeded to sleep for ten hours. Ten glorious hours!!
Sunday was by far the best day, and along with a little more house cleaning, I managed to squeeze in a long ride. Since the hotel where I stayed didn't have a bike in the gym, I figured that I needed to log some time to make up for it. Hence, I rode more than hour and would have gone longer if I had had more time. The weather was so beautiful and the wind wasn't too bad. I rode in a new area so the scenery was nice too. I also stumbled across a great stretch of road that had little traffic and was fairly long. All was good until I got a little closer to home and then IT HAPPENED!
I experienced (I believe) a cyclist's rite of passage because I had my first crash on the bike...EVER! I'm okay and so is the bike. Luckily, I wasn't going too fast to do serious damage. However, the story of how it happened isn't very glamorous either. I was down the street from my house and made a U-turn in the street. I managed to get too close to the curb and lost control of the handlebars. Before I knew it, I hit the curb and fell off the bike. It kind of scared me, because it happened so quickly. After it happened I immediately thought of my friend, Rodney, who had encouraged Jen and I to learn to fall. Again, it wasn't too bad because I fell onto a grassy area but I think was more embarrassed than anything else. Like I said, not a glamorous story and I don't have any major road rash; but it happened, which is kind of a big deal when you are beginner.
Looking back on the week, there is definite room for improvement and this week will be a true test of that. Although the week didn't unfold exactly as I planned, I am still happy with what I did accomplish and am committed to making it better each week.
Now to the update...
Last week was a complete blur for me due to a busy work week, which was followed by a busy weekend. To be honest, last week was a bit of a challenge because it wasn't the typical week for me. At the end of the week, I had a trip scheduled to Washington, D.C., to conduct a site visit for our upcoming LIVESTRONG Day event. It was a short trip, but action-packed no less. I would like to say that I held to my "only two days of working late" but it didn't happen...and I'm okay with that (sort of). The reality was that while I was traveling and away from the office, the emails kept coming and deadlines needed to be met. It happens and I'm okay with that...for that week.
As we headed into the weekend, my husband took me out for a nice sushi dinner at Beluga and we enjoyed spending some time together. We are co-presidents for our neighborhood association and we had recently organized a crime prevention meeting for our neighorbors on Thursday. I was traveling, but my husband conducted the event on his own and we discussed what we wanted to do next. Overall, he was pleased with the turnout, and I was happy that it went so well for him.
Saturday brought our quarterly "Adopt-a-Trail" clean-up along the creek in our neighborhood. We had five neighbors show up and we spent about two hours picking up cans and snack wrappers that had washed down with the recent rains. Saturday also happened to be "Dumpster Day" in the city so we managed to do a little cleaning of our house too. I was really tired that night, so I headed to bed early and proceeded to sleep for ten hours. Ten glorious hours!!
Sunday was by far the best day, and along with a little more house cleaning, I managed to squeeze in a long ride. Since the hotel where I stayed didn't have a bike in the gym, I figured that I needed to log some time to make up for it. Hence, I rode more than hour and would have gone longer if I had had more time. The weather was so beautiful and the wind wasn't too bad. I rode in a new area so the scenery was nice too. I also stumbled across a great stretch of road that had little traffic and was fairly long. All was good until I got a little closer to home and then IT HAPPENED!
I experienced (I believe) a cyclist's rite of passage because I had my first crash on the bike...EVER! I'm okay and so is the bike. Luckily, I wasn't going too fast to do serious damage. However, the story of how it happened isn't very glamorous either. I was down the street from my house and made a U-turn in the street. I managed to get too close to the curb and lost control of the handlebars. Before I knew it, I hit the curb and fell off the bike. It kind of scared me, because it happened so quickly. After it happened I immediately thought of my friend, Rodney, who had encouraged Jen and I to learn to fall. Again, it wasn't too bad because I fell onto a grassy area but I think was more embarrassed than anything else. Like I said, not a glamorous story and I don't have any major road rash; but it happened, which is kind of a big deal when you are beginner.
Looking back on the week, there is definite room for improvement and this week will be a true test of that. Although the week didn't unfold exactly as I planned, I am still happy with what I did accomplish and am committed to making it better each week.
2 comments:
Welcome to the club Lauren, you are "officially" a cyclist. Many riders feel that you are a 'real' cyclist until you've crashed. I've clipped the curb a couple times and ended up on the ground (one time because I was late for Organic Chemistry lecture, obviously I ended up even later in my hurry to get to class). I'm glad the only really bruised was your pride.
As for embarrassing ways to 'bite the dust' I one time fell over after coming to a dead stop on my mountain bike as I could not get my shoe out of the pedal quickly enough. (Ironically, that was the exact reason I had stopped, to continue testing the resistance setting on my pedal.) I was in the parking lot in of my office and only about ten of my coworkers saw the whole stunt.
I'm glad you were able to get out for an hour ride. That shows dedication!
Congratulations Lauren! Remind me to tell you about the time I crashed into a light post because a bee had flown into my hair. It happend on a fairly busy street with numerous on-lookers (none of who offered to help, mind you). The good news is that it was in Germany and I didn't know any of the witnesses!
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