As part of my fitness plan I cycle around 14 miles every Sunday morning. We don't have too many mountain in Lincolnshire so it isn't a really hard cross country circuit, but it gets my heart pumping and I get out into the countryside with my thoughts for a while.
Yesterday morning it rained. Lots.
Really, really lots.
I still went out.
One stretch is a narrow, downhill path alongside a field. I really got up some speed on that, even though the ground was very slippery and I was a bit of a passenger a couple of times. At the end of this stretch is a very narrow bridge (~ 1m) onto a dirt track. I attacked this with my usual level of enthusiasm and then thought about how I was going to manage the hard left turn onto the track.
After that things went a little bit fuzzy for a while, and then I remember getting up and thinking "I hope nobody saw that". Closely followed by "Ouch".
I remounted and felt more that a little wobbly so decided to cut my ride short and headed the shortest way home. It rained a bit more while I was cruising home just to brighten my mood.
I've got a good graze on my arm and a big hole in my knee. I also discovered a scrape on the side of my helmet which explains the wobbly feeling. By the time I got home my left leg and shoe were distincly red in colour. Doesn't a little bit of blood go a long way?
Anyway, the long short of this:
1 If you go out cycling, wear a suitable helmet that fits properly
2 At my age I really should know better
3 Don't expect any sympathy from your wife when you drip blood on the kitchen floor
Ouch. How it all heals quickly!
I never had any nasty mountain biking injuries. The worst was when I tried to bike a very steep rocky incline. I shouldn't have even tried. The ground was loose and I tumbled. My knee hit a rock right on that spot that makes it hurt really bad. I laid on the ground and dragged my bike out of the trail. I layed there for a good ten minutes. Luckily I was only a few hundred yards from the end of the trail. It never really bruised, but it hurt for at least a week.
When I bike I'm overly cautious until I know the trail really well.
I haven't mountain biked in years. There aren't any trails around here.
Brutal! I had a few of those crashes in my mountain biking days. The best one was on my dad's brand new bike.
if your mountain biking chances are you will fall sometime. i race downhill mountain bikes regularlly, ranked 7th nationally last year for my class/age group. worst injury broke my jaw completely in half and in both joints, chipped four teeth(caps) and had 4 root canals, 28 stitches in my chin and a broken pinkie all at once. so take it easy man wear a helmet and gloves at least.
My only biking days ------- when I was in Bermuda - - -one of those moped bikes