Mountain Biking

After re-habbing my knee 3 times in the past 15 years, I'm beyond sick of stationary bikes. They make me feel like a gerbil. When I was griping about how out of shape I was from writing my thesis over a year ago, my husband bought me a mountain bike for Christmas. He promised that he would teach me to mountain bike. In the 2 years I've had the bike, I've gone trail riding exactly 3 times. The first time, I ended up falling sideways off a little bridge and landing in a bush (have I mentioned that my sense of balance sucks?). Not a bad place to fall, but I ended up with a branch up my nose and a very nice cut. Made for some cute pictures at a family party the following week! I did much better the second time a week later. However, since that time, I haven't gone trail riding. It's been over a year. Last summer, the weather was abysmally rainy for the first part of the summer and then I was prepping for my defense through the second part of the summer. So I was not surprised at how badly I sucked trail riding this past weekend. I wiped out twice. The first time in sand that I didn't have enough speed to make it over and the second time when my bike bounced unexpectedly and I got tossed over the handle bars. Meanwhile, my husband was battling deer flies while waiting for me to catch up with him. Two days later, I have some really nice purple splotches all over my legs and the palms of my hands (can we say death grip on the handles) and my husband's arm is swollen from all the bites. I think its bizarre that I can't wait to try again....