Saturday ride

Today, I met Ted at 8:30 for a “quick” lap. We have both been wanting to ride with someone faster because I want to get my lap time down a bit. Ted started off and said we were warming up slow, however I thought we were moving pretty good. After camp road he said we were going to pick up the pace. I tried to keep up, but I was slipping and sliding around on the roots and muddy turns. Ted seemed to not even notice them as he slowly pulled further and further away. I finally started trying to close the distance on the straight aways. Well, I shouldn’t have, because I hit one of the bridges and next thing I knew I was on the ground. Most of the time, I can feel the bike starting to slide and easily recover, or at least have time to put a foot down for balance. This time I went from riding to a pile on the ground instantly. I knew I hit pretty hard and must have yelled because Ted stopped. I had to recover myself for a minute because it was a little disoriented. I really didn’t check myself but just jumped on the bike and started riding again. We got to the North trailhead and somehow we were about 3 minutes slower than I wanted to be. ( I think it was because we rode the road pretty slowly because I felt like we were moving through the first part pretty fast).
I slowly recovered on the climb and was able to hit the steep sections with a bit of energy. We rode on and descended blood rock. I was a little cautious because of the wreck, but we scooted on down and reached Johnson’s Mountain. I pushed it pretty good but every time I looked back Ted was right there. We finished on out and I saw Joe, Lee, Joel, and Brennon on the parking lot about to ride. I decided I would try to keep up and turned to ask Ted if he wanted to do another. At this point I realize he had not come out of the woods yet. I knew he was behind me at the beginning of Toads so I started back to check on him. He came out of the woods right as I got there and his chain had broken on him. He decided not to do the second lap so I refilled the camelback and ate a pack of sport beans. I had not really planned on riding two because I had a wedding to go to tonight in Mobile so I knew I had to be back. Since it was 10:15 and I had to leave the park at 12: 30 I figured I had time. I did not bring anything to eat between laps like I usually do. This ended up getting me later.

We headed Counter Clockwise and rode Mr. Toads before Lee’s friend realized he dropped his phone. We rode back and Lee found it near the entrance to the trail. We headed out again and amazingly I was able to keep up. At the end of Johnson’s, Lee and his friend decided they were going to head back and get in some rock climbing. The remainder of us headed on up to blood rock. I had to put the front in granny for this climb, but I managed to stay on the bike. Joe managed to make it almost all the way up the Blood rock section even with all the water. He only got caught on one of the top rock steps past the toughest part. I have never seen anyone ride up it before, so I was pretty impressed.

We stopped to play on the log at the top of the BUMP trail for a while and talked to a couple of riders from Tuscaloosa. Cruising on up to the top of the mountain (where the sign is) I realized I was running short on time. It was almost 12:00 so I headed on by myself. The trail was in much better shape than this morning and had dried out a good bit. I was still being cautious on the bridges but for some strange reason my brain did not register the log as being slick. I tried to ride across it, but apparently got too far to one side and the front tire slid off. Generally this is no big deal as you ride right off, but when the front slid off, the back followed suit and I ended up on the ground again. I jumped back on the bike and finished out the trail. I cleaned myself up and went down to the BUMP pavilion since today was the day of the Spring Social. I grabbed one of the homade cookies, but as I was late (it was about 1:00 and I was supposed to be home at 1) I didn’t grab anything else to eat.

When I got home I finally assessed the damage from the wreck. I knew my hip was bruised pretty bad because it was hurting, but when I looked at it I have a huge section that looked like road rash. I managed to scratch the bottom of my arm as well as my right leg has tire marks all down my inner thigh. I really found out how bad it was when I got in the shower. I have not felt pain that bad in a while.
I am on my way home and it looks like it will be 1 before I get home. I may not make it to Oak at 7:45 for the ride tomorrow. I think I may just join Monty at 10 and see if he wants to ride 2 laps then.