Recovery?

Well, this is the time I've been waiting for...the rest and recovery part! Of course, recovery can mean different things to different people. Pretty much took two weeks after the race off, then MyKaren, ProKaren, Shelley and I started hitting the dirt on our mountain bikes. We are signed up to do a short adventure race at the end of September so it was time to get some dirt time.

It was nice to be better than ProKaren at something for about 30 minutes, as she is not a mountain biker. How sweet to hear some complaining about how hard it was! Aahhh. ProKaren was building up a nice set of bruises, but of course I did one better.

We first took her to Poor Farm and then Pocahontas parks since the trails are not as technical, and despite a spill a day, she was doing great (darn her). So, last weekend we decided to tackle Buttermilk. We had made our way to the Boulevard Bridge, I was last in line. At the section that goes under the bridge, both Karens walked their bikes, as it is very washed out and has big rocks. Of course, I decided to try to ride it. All went well for the first 10 feet. Then I ran into a big rock that I did not roll over, so over I went. Flying face-first towards a big pointy rock, I decided to put my left hand out to stop my face from hitting it. Good idea, as it saved my face. Not so good for my wrist. Anyhoo, a bad sprain, major impact bruises and gashes and a hospital visit later, I've been taking a little more time off than anticipated. I hit the ground so freakin hard, I really thought I broke my wrist, so I'm laying in the dirt yelling my head off and scaring both Karens to death. My knees ended up being the things that hurt the worse, I still can't really run. Waahh. But, my wrist is getting better!

We rode yesterday at Pocahontas, I tried the single-track but the jarring hurt my wrist so we did the Fendely Station trail...without a map. 2 1/2 hours later, after riding in circles for quite a bit, we finally managed to get the heck off the trail and back to the car. I wish the trail signs had actual directions on them. I know that portions are easy, but we were not in those areas, we were north of the dam, trying to find the damn dam, to make a big circle, and we just could not find it. Doesn't make the idea of an adventure race seem like a smart one...We think we got chiggers as well..fun times!