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Crossing myself

I collected a few souvenirs over the weekend. They are all temporary (I hope) and unintentional body modifications I picked up in the course of learning how to ride and race cyclocross.

The first and most obvious one is the scrape on the front of my lower left leg. It looks like I was assaulted by a leprechaun with a cheese grater. I earned this one by attempting a high-speed dismount with one foot still clipped into the pedal. Oops. I went tuckus over teakettle. Could have been worse.

The second memento is actually the cumulative effect of several hours of attempting a rolling re-mount. I have a very tender, hand-sized patch inside my right thigh that is mottled with a few shades of eggplant. When you try repeatedly to swing your right leg over the saddle while you and the bike are both moving forward, and when you are supposed to land with your inner right thigh on the saddle but are not exactly sure how to accomplish that with the necessary precision, you will get bruised. The second day of cyclocross clinics was definitely the most painful for that particular injury. I think I yelped in pain every time I hopped on the saddle.

And there are the other bruises and tender spots... the one from repeatedly shouldering my bike. The goose egg from the pedal-meets-shin incident. The mysterious purple spot on my elbow. The all-over soreness from using muscles I rarely use. (And probably from that one crash.)

But once I had gotten the hang of the skills enough to ride a practice race course, it became clear that it was totally worth it. This is going to be lots of fun. Even better, there will be many opportunities for me to make a total fool of myself. You all should totally come watch! Even better, beg/borrow a bike and join in.

September 15, 2008 10:27 PM