Biking Days Over??

My mountain biking days may be over.  : (  For the first time in my life I have poison oak on my legs and it's spreading.  It's definitely not a really bad case of it but it's enough.   I'm itching so bad I want to claw myself to death.  I've definitely bruised my legs from scratching so hard.  I don't know if there's something you can put on your legs to prevent getting it but if there's not I think I'll give up biking.  As much as I love it and get a rush from it, it's so not worth this.  Perhaps I'm a wimp but I can live with that....just can't live with poison oak!

Sweet Moments

Two things hit me last night.  I knew both of them before and think about this a lot but it really hit me in the face last night:  there's nothing sweeter in this world than a sleeping child and a child's belly laugh.  Emma and I were in my bed last night watching each other draw pictures with our eyes closed.  When one of us would produce a snowman with his eyes on his belly and his arms completely detached from it's body, Emma would laugh so hard her face would turn red, she'd gasp for breath and let out an occasional snort.  There's something about hearing that deep belly laugh that makes me immensely happy.

Once we were done, she dozed off in my bed.  It may sound creepy but those of you that are moms (or dads) will understand, I just lied there staring at her.  Her eyes closed, slow, steady breathing, occasional mouth twitch....precious.  I literally could have sat there and stared at her for hours.  But I didn't - I picked her up (all 54 pounds of limp, dead weight!) and deposited her in her own bed and tucked that sweet girl in.  Man I love that kid.

Yes, that dirty brownish blob is Puppy.  He's baaaaaaack.

Darn Bike

So I went mountain biking on Monday evening for the first time in a few months.   It’s just been way too hot lately and I’ve also had this bike storage issue, which has just been resolved this week.  Every time I hit the trails on my bike when it’s been a while (even a few weeks), I’m shocked at how difficult it is.   I went to Horizons park, which I’ve never been to before and there was A LOT of hills.   Not only that, but it had rained the day before so it was a bit muddy.  I think I dropped more f-bombs on that bike excursion that I have in a year.   Very un-ladylike.   Actually, there was nothing ladylike about me that day.  I was literally drenched in sweat and covered in mud when I was done.   When I got home and took my clothes off to shower, there was mud and dirt all over the floor – I even had it in my hair – not sure how that happened.   Gross.

I work out a lot.  I run, strength train with a personal trainer, etc and it still kicked my ass.  When I would stop for a break (which I don’t typically have to do but since it’s a been a while, it was a necessity), I could feel the blood pulsating in my head and I thought I might have an aneurism.    I don’t even want to know what my heart rate was.

Even though I got tangled up in a few branches, ran off the trail, slung mud all over myself and even completely crashed and landed in a pile of bushes, I still didn’t think I had gotten injured.   But by the next morning I had already developed a nice big bruise on the back of my right leg.  I still think that’s pretty freaking good.   I have a few scratches here and there but they’re very minor.  I also wore padded biking shorts for the first time ever but my butt is still massively sore.   I’m sure people wonder what’s wrong with me when they see me sit down so gingerly.   Ouch.  Maybe I need a donut.