At 23, I am nowhere near what many would classify as "getting old", but today I took a pretty hard crash on something that normally I wouldn't have crashed on.
Quick replay, riding towards a flyout quarter, didn't have near enough speed for a full 360, but went for it anyway, clipped my backwheel on the coping, sprained my wrist hard and smashed my face pretty good.
I bounced right up, thinking I should shake that one off. Decided to call it a day, and on the way home I got to thinking: Is this the age I am going to stop doing tricks on my bike, start riding xc and wearing spandex?
I have always been a fairly cautionary rider, helmet and knee pads all the time, and I am rarely doing things spur of the moment. I take crashing seriously, so because of that my progression has been slow, usually taking me a full year to dial any given trick. Am I being a puss? Do other riders hit these kinds of forks in the road where they are not quite sure where their riding is going? I am always telling new riders that I can promise two things, first that they are going to crash so hard that they will question why they ride bikes, and second that they are going to have so much fun and accomplish so much, that they will remember why they ride bikes. Balance is key when riding bikes, after all.
But today really got me thinking. I mean right before I hit the quarter, I thought to myself "you don't have enough speed for this spin" and any other time I'd have just rolled it and went for another go, but for some reason I went for it anyway. It's got me a tad worried about my attitude towards riding in the particular way that I do. I know that very soon, I am not going to heal up quite as quickly as I used to.
As a prereq to some of the negative nancy responses, like I said I am always very cautionary, but I do remain optimistic about my riding, trying to progress, but at a rate that hasn't put me in the hospital for a while. Knock knock.
Help me Obi Wan.
Quick replay, riding towards a flyout quarter, didn't have near enough speed for a full 360, but went for it anyway, clipped my backwheel on the coping, sprained my wrist hard and smashed my face pretty good.
I bounced right up, thinking I should shake that one off. Decided to call it a day, and on the way home I got to thinking: Is this the age I am going to stop doing tricks on my bike, start riding xc and wearing spandex?
I have always been a fairly cautionary rider, helmet and knee pads all the time, and I am rarely doing things spur of the moment. I take crashing seriously, so because of that my progression has been slow, usually taking me a full year to dial any given trick. Am I being a puss? Do other riders hit these kinds of forks in the road where they are not quite sure where their riding is going? I am always telling new riders that I can promise two things, first that they are going to crash so hard that they will question why they ride bikes, and second that they are going to have so much fun and accomplish so much, that they will remember why they ride bikes. Balance is key when riding bikes, after all.
But today really got me thinking. I mean right before I hit the quarter, I thought to myself "you don't have enough speed for this spin" and any other time I'd have just rolled it and went for another go, but for some reason I went for it anyway. It's got me a tad worried about my attitude towards riding in the particular way that I do. I know that very soon, I am not going to heal up quite as quickly as I used to.
As a prereq to some of the negative nancy responses, like I said I am always very cautionary, but I do remain optimistic about my riding, trying to progress, but at a rate that hasn't put me in the hospital for a while. Knock knock.
Help me Obi Wan.