Twenty Questions

1. What did you start your day doing? Out of saddle hill repeats.
2. How many unplanned miles did you drive later to retrieve your bike and go to the trail? 15.
3. How many trees did you make contact with today? 2.
4. Did either of them knock you down? No.
5. Did you knock either of them down? Yes.
6. How many noticeably rocky sections did you ride instead of walking? I'll have to ask the Major, but I think 3.
7. Why did you almost throw up? Caught off guard by rock + adrenaline jolt + heat = sudden crazy heart rate.
8. How loudly were you whimpering on that one downhill? ~60dB.
9. What did the whimpering most resemble? 2-day-old puppy.
10. What was going through your mind? "Laughing right now, bad idea."
11. What did you like best? Roots! And moving off the saddle! And endorphins!
12. What must you embrace? Rocks a tire-width apart.
13. When you woke up this morning, did you think you would ride over rocks and roots today? No.
14. One month ago, did you think it would happen this year? No.
15. Does it hurt to fall? No. Sometimes it hurts to land.
16. Did you fall today? Yes. Lost all notion of line through rocks and didn't get clipped out of my pedal.
17. Is it hard to get clipped out? No.
18. Is it hard to get clipped in? For some of us, evidently.
19. What are you looking forward to? Reliable forward momentum.
20. Who's the badass having the time of her life? Why, I think it's me.

Hat tip and a beer of choice to the Major MudBunny, who went slow so I could watch her lines around the Orange loop, left me behind sometimes to work it out on my own, stopped whenever I did, and called out helpful things like "Mud, gear down," and "Just roll over these," and "Take a drink of water!"

I walked (and fell) a lot less than I would have. New world opened like a cold bottle. Good job all around, Major.