Good or Bad

Yay!!! Back on the bike this morning after a week of resting and healing. I didn't realize how painful torn scar tissue can be. I rode today with a very good friend. We always try to push each other as well as encourage. I so enjoy riding with her that I hate being off the bike. Today's ride was a series of good and bad moments!!

The route today has one one of my least favorite climbs. It has a great downhill run into it, but the only problm was that as I geared down going up the hill, my gears wouldn't drop. So I had to stop on the uphill to fix the gears. I climbed back on the bike and started climbing and had more gear issues, nearly falling. Off the bike again and fixing gears, back on the bike and I can't get clipped and still in the wrong gear. Off the bike, drop all gears and back on again, finally moving forward, but couldn't clip my left foot because I was going so slow that if I sopped pedaling to clip that I would fall over. I was praying that my left shoe wouldn't slip off the pedal because I would be in just as much trouble. Finally crested the hill and recovered while spinning. After that we only dealt with one idiotic dump truck driver who passed us quite irresponsibly and nearly had a head-on with the SUV coming toasted us. Thankfully the SUV driver slowed down or it could have been ugly. We had a great tailwind for a good portion of the ride. The headwind was pretty gnarly at points, but we still made it and had fun.

The knee and quad are still pretty sore and more so following the ride and having a little fun with Sandra. We were kind of racing to the last hill and finish and I came out of the saddle and the area where the scar tissue tore told me that it was not a good idea to continue that course of action. I let Sandra go and took it easy at the end.

It was great to be on the road again, despite the discomfort and soreness. Tomorrow will be better.