Ah! Embarrassing Biking Moment!

Today I ventured out on a bike ride and my first open water swim. It was only my fourth time going out on my friend's road bike (which she graciously lent me for the triathlon next weekend) and I was workin' it. I was going up and down hills, got over 30 mph, and felt my self-esteem about biking slowly rising.

I stopped at a lake close to our house, talked to the people working in the park about whether or not it was safe to swim, kind of got the okay, and jumped on in. It was strange swimming in open water. You can't really see in front of you so a bloated dead body fish could just pop into your periphery under water and you wouldn't know it until it brushed your toe. Do you see how my anxiety manifests itself into thinking weird things like that?! Once I got over my horrible imagination because I swam with my eyes closed the swim went really well. I'm so pumped for the tri next weekend!

Gorgeous day for a murky yet satisfying swim.

I left the lake for the rest of my bike ride and everything was-- as I mentioned-- going well. That is, until I decided to cut through a neighborhood on my way home. While I was singing the Black Keys' song Gold on the Ceiling to myself and not paying attention, I took a turn too fast and all I saw was gravel and sand.
"It's cool," I thought, "I'll just pedal through it, right?"

Wrong. So wrong.

I felt my bike coming out from under me sideways and I panicked. I turned onto someone's front lawn away from the gravel and thought, "Whew, that was close." Ha. I wasn't safe yet. The next thing I saw was a large piece of wood the people put in their yard to mark parking. I couldn't stop because I've just learned how to brake and I couldn't get to them fast enough.

"What is this?!?! I thought, "DoubleDare?!?!? Legends of the Hidden Temple?!?!?! GUTS?!?!"

I hit the wood and flew through the air (well, I felt like I was flying through the air), landed, and kept going. When I (miraculously) landed I was still on the bike and the thud that sounded was DEFINITELY FELT through my very padded shorts. I screamed out some expletives and dragged my feet on the ground until I was FINALLY able to reach for the brakes. I finally stopped after a few more expletives.

I opened my eyes (see earlier example of me closing my eyes every time I'm nervous) to see that I was almost to this anonymous person's front door. The wheel of my bike was almost in their garden. I was way too close to their house.
         "OH MY GOD," I whisper-screamed to myself. "My ass!!!!" Then I laughed because I always laugh when I do something weird and klutzy.
         "Hey," said a voice from the window directly in front of me, "Are you okay?"
       
I shook myself out of my ass reverie and quickly rode away, laughing all the way home. I hope I gave the window dude a story to tell for the evening because now I'm going to need one of these:

[via]
Sweet relief.

Learning how to ride a road bike is hard.