Day 57: blargh

I was super pumped to bring my bike home this weekend. As soon as I got to my parents' house, I made my whole family try it so they could stew in jealousy over my sweet ride.

The ride itself, however, did not end up being so sweet.

On Saturday morning my sister, dad, Kat & I went for a mysterious bike ride down a path that my dad wanted to check out.

I was feeling optimistic (yet cautious, being with so many athletic people!) when I made it up the hill on Prospect Hill that I hadn't been able to get up last time I was home.

We ended up going through Bear Hole, which is an unpaved foresty kind of place. There were many rocks and the ride was bumpy. We reached a blocked off section in the path and had to walk our bikes around the barrier. We then rode down a road that was paved, albeit poorly. It was even bumpier and rockier than the unpaved trail! We followed that road to the end and then were on some real pavement, which felt heavenly compared to the last surface.

We then decided to check out the Bear Hole reservoir, which is not nearly as awesome as the Holyoke reservoir. We went down a realllly steep hill and then had to go around a fence and that was about it. We hopped off our bikes and peered over the bridge into the water and then turned around to go back.

Needless to say, I did not make it back up the realllly steep hill. Becca & Kat did, those little athletic bitches. Dad & I walked our bikes up the hill.

We couldn't figure out how to get out of the reservoir because a gate had been open when we went in and was closed when we tried to leave. My dad tried to map out an alternate path and as he did so, I ended up catching my tire on some loose gravel in a small ditch annnnnd my bicycle pwned me. It took me out. I toppled over and it toppled over on top of me. How rude.

My knee was all cut up and bloody and my spirits were pretty low by this point. I was tired of feeling tired. Annoyed that bike rides are still so tiring for me and not as easy as I want them to be. And there go Becca & Kat, who bike ride about 1/20 the amount of time I do coasting along with barely any effort. It just isn't fair!

We made it up to the country store and stopped so they could get some freeze pops. I examined my bloody knee, which had dripped down to my sock. I also had a nice black and blue mark forming. My knee was sore and I just wanted the trip to be over with already, but we still had quite a ways ahead of us.

We went up and down and up and down and finally made it back to Prospect (coming from the opposite direction...we had done a loop). I could not make it up that hill for the life of me. I was so beat. I ended up hopping off and walking it up. Once I re-mounted, I felt as tired and weak as if I had actually biked up the damn thing. Fail.

I biked really slowly the rest of the way back home and, of course, walked my bike up the driveway.

Too much walking, not enough attacking. A disheartening day, indeed.

When we got home, I mapmyrun.com[ed] our route, and we found out that we'd done a total of 7-8 miles.