New Bikes and Old Backs

Tuesday of last week, I woke up with some sort of pinched nerve in my upper back, that left me feeling incapacitated for a few days. I was really bummed to miss a few good rides, including Sean’s Alaska bound last ride in New Jersey (If you are reading Sean, I hope you are loving Alaska). By weekend, I was on the mend, and I can’t tell you how good it felt to be returning to normal life again. Even if it still hurt to breathe, I was happy to feel alive and know that this was just a temporary glitch in my life.

Sunday I was feeling well enough to race, but by the time I figured that out, I had come across injured sport racer, Christina on the course and helped to get her back to the EMT’s. By the time I got back, I missed registration and was pretty happy to just enjoy the race from a different point of view. I did tag along behind the expert women for the prolog, and then with the leaders for lap #2. Teammates Dar and Laura both won their age group and were 1 and 2 coming in. I ended up with a light day on the bike, and all this for a good reason, as I had a brand new moto-lite waiting at home for it’s virgin ride.

Yesterday, I put the moto-lite through the test and all I can say is … WOW! I rode one of the more technical trails in the area and that bike handled the trail perfectly, being nimble, plush and forgiving. The bike feels like it could climb up a wall if I had the gas. The ride feel instilled confidence in my descending and did not demand too much finesse, creating a relaxing ride. At one point I clipped a tree at speed, and very calmly rode out the deflection. I am looking forward to some more riding on this bike. I may even try the super-D at National Championships. The bike is certainly more worthy of super-D than I. I am pretty lucky to have Titus as my sponsor.



After taking a few days off the bike, it felt great to be out in the woods again, and to ride a super cool new bike was like icing on the cake. If that wasn’t enough already, it was a beautiful day. I came across two separate families of wild turkey with little fluffy babies scurrying off the trail. Laurel around the lake was in full bloom, and tiny green blueberries dotted the bushes up on the ridges, where gentle breezes made me forget how much I hurt last week. I am very thankful to have a healing activity like mountain biking in my life.