Bravo! Well said Luke! Seriously, I have seen too many posts where people come off with a "I'm awesome, why aren't you?" vibe. I think it's fkn lame. I've seen folks on here criticize others for wanting to shuttle certain runs, walk certain sections, and now for wearing body armor?! I am 36 years old now and wear knee protection on EVERY ride because I do not heal as quick as I did when I was 18. "No risk, no reward" has been replaced by "no skin, no ride!" Regardless of the terrain or my skill level, the fact remains that shit happens! Has nothing to do with confidence. It's all a part of learning and improving. From what I can gather, Alison is a gal that has somewhat recently discovered a lifestyle that she is obviously devoted to and is relentlessly pushing herself to hone her skills. As a result, she will, like all of us, leave some blood on the trails. This is not her first, or last, crash and is showing no signs of quitting! My 2 cents is keep going! You're doing just fine, FlyingNerdGirl!! Heal fast luv, Backbone lurks on the horizon! SDMF!!:bang:
Ouch, hope you got some percocet out of them for that. That looks painful. I got one of those from snowboarding once that showed up 2-3 days later, yeah it hurt. Deep bruises ftl... get well soon.
Okay, here is a photo of the bruise on my left hip/ass cheek. Isn't it sexy? The one on my shoulder/collar bone isn't as purple, probably because it has been getting the ice more (because it hurts more).
excellent cheek shot (the subject deserves its own thread). it looks like a mad chipmunk with a robin hood hat on! happy healing.
LOLZ! I wasn't terribly lucid last night! Vicodin and a large bottle of lambic and I was pretty loopy Yeah, I know it could have been worse, like what happened to mfoga on the same day. My hip is doing much better today, and I am walking without crutches now. However, my lower left abdomen is still hurting, particularly when I sneeze or cough, and that concerns me. I'd previously torn the muscle there a couple months ago (not caused by riding, and not to where it was a hernia, though) and I am afraid this may have either irritated it or made it worse. My shoulder is only marginally better, and I still can't move it beyond a certain point. I will be seeing my own MD tomorrow to have him check on it. I'm thinking maybe torn muscle. Luke just left for a ride in Sycamore Canyon. I am a jealous and sad panda
You should take that pic and frame it cause it kinda looks like a work of art Hope you heal and feel better soon, when will you be back on the trails?
:lol: I'll know better once I see my own md. I am hoping I'll be okay by December 12th for my planned Two Trees run. Not sure if I am being overly optimistic or if it is wishful thinking. Again, I am just grateful that it is probably just a torn muscle or tendon or something. Though someone here on STR (I think it might have been GeorgiaoftheJungle) said that sometimes deep tissue damage takes longer to heal. I don't even want to entertain the possibility that I won't be able to ride longer than a month. Yes, I'm in denial.
It seems riders go down in their most familiar trail. I got hurt last year on the Luge riding at night which I've done so many times. Going around 1 of the turns, my front tire hit a rock and washed out, I went down and strained my left MCL. Really sorry to hear about your fall. Hope you heal up soon. Possibly, Rachel aka GeorgiaOfTheJungle is a nurse.
Then why bother with a helmet? Or gloves, or even shoes when you ride? <S@R> <----International Blog/Forum Sarcasm Symbol Seriously, I hate wearing armor and never did (except a helmet/gloves/shoes) until recently as I hate being in unnecessary pain and being off the bike to heal a lot more. I never wore helmets until I was required to do so for competition. Never had any crashes that caused head injuries. I used to snicker at the folks who wear helmets surfing. But after seeing a more than few folks die on the North Shore each year and getting hit by boards while shooting from the water I started wearing one almost full time. Confidence was never an issue as I rarely had any major crashes - and none that sent me to the hospital or a Dr. Then I got popped on my motorcycle by an idiot woman making a left turn in front of me while doing her makeup. My helmet saved my life and having some basic armor on would have saved me from a lot more, but not all of, the injuries. 6 weeks of traction, another 6 weeks of pins and casts after having a hip rebroken to heal correctly, cracked vertebrae, broken ribs and legs, and 22 months of getting around by walker, crutches and a cane while doing physical therapy just to be able to walk normally again changed my mind. I'm older, and hopefully wiser now, and I don't have a problem getting medical care when I feel the need to. If one isn't into wearing armor, then so be it, each individual has to decide for themselves. And it's not about confidence. It's about being prepared just in case. I wear the gear I do because I hate being off the bike over a simple decision to not be prepared for anything that could happen.
Bummer. Other than having a good story to tell later, getting injured is a drag. Hope that you heal quickly and get back on the bike (where you belong).
It looks more like a sherman tank to me... :lol: but too each his/her own, its like finding images in the clouds.
I can't believe I'm being made to feel like I have to justify protecting my arms and legs. That has got to be one of the most asinine things I've encountered yet on STR. WTF is wrong with some of you people? I was trying to ignore it, because Luke really did say, for the most part, what needed to be said on my behalf. But it has been bugging me, and it's harshing my Vicodin-induced mellow, and that pisses me off. First of all, if you read carefully, I never said I endo a lot. I said I *fall* a lot. Falling and endoing are not the same beast. Yes, I do go OTB from time to time. But I have also been known to slide to the side and even just do stupid things like lose my balance when I start pedaling from a complete stop. The most experienced riders do all those things, even lose their balance (I've seen it). Hell, I even heard about a TDW rider that managed to endo going *uphill*! I am a klutz, plain and simple. I always have been. Part of it is being klutzy, and part of it is that my balance stinks from having chronic middle ear problems due to my allergies. Even before I started mountain biking, I always had bruises on me somewhere. Ones I didn't even know how they happened. I walk into tables, chairs, & door jambs that I can clearly see are right in front of me. I trip on curbs and even fall *up* stairs when I'm walking up them. It's amazing I can be so graceful on a dance floor when I perform as a belly dancer, because when that music stops, I go back to being the person who bought a round table simply because she got tired of banging her hip on the corners of a square one! Knowing this about myself, you'd think I would have worn protection from the very start. But I didn't. And I would fall over and skin my knees and elbows. I laughed it off, and thought it was cool; badges of honor. However, I work in a professional setting-- the federal court-- and my co-workers really didn't like seeing big bruises and bloody scabs on my elbows all the time. So okay, I decided to buy elbow and knee guards. After all, what's wrong with protecting myself? Besides, I'm 40, and I don't heal as fast as I used to. Not only that, I spend at least 6 hours of my 8 hour day at work on my feet and doing heavy lifting. If I injure myself to where I can't do that, I'm screwed and will lose my job. Better safe than sorry. So I started wearing protection every time I ride. I can't believe it is such and issue for some people to see me do it. For god's sake, I'm learning how to mountain bike and some of you guys would begrudge me some protection?! I'm the kind of person who moves forward and learns by taking chances. How can you learn something if you never try it? And you can't be expected to do something perfect the very first time you try it. I guess some of the people here on STR always do everything perfect the first time and never fall. Wow, aren't you the lucky ones. I'm not so lucky. I'm the person who says, "Okay, I want to try going over these boulders." So I try going over them. Maybe I do it right the first time, maybe I don't and I fall over or go OTB. Whether or not I do it right, then I do it again and again. That's *my* learning process. But just in case I do fall, I've got protection on so I can keep riding and learning instead of spending a month or two laid up with an injury that sets me back. Is that such a hard concept to get? It has nothing to do with confidence. Shit, if I had no confidence, I wouldn't be trying things at all, now would I? For example, a couple weeks ago I decided I wanted to try riding over some boulders in Sycamore. Well, I did it right on my first try, except at the very end when I was headed down the other side where Luke was waiting for me, cheering me on, and I got so excited that I had succeeded that I forgot myself and grabbed a little too much brake when I went to stop, tried to correct, and I tipped over to the side (I did not endo, let's be clear about that). I landed on my knee pretty hard when I went down. But I was wearing my wonderful RockGardn knee/shin guards, and I heard the plastic hit the rock and make a cracking noise, but guess what? Those guards are so awesome sauce that I didn't even feel the impact! And, not a scratch on the guard itself! Had I not been wearing that, I am convinced I would have cracked my knee cap. Okay, so now I ask you, where was my confidence in my riding lacking there? If anything, a) I was confident enough to *try* and b) my confidence soared so much that I did something absolutely silly/klutzy and forgot myself! I am glad I was wearing my protective gear so I was able to just laugh about the fall, get back on my bike, and go practice other things that afternoon (which is what I do on Sunday afternoons, I go out and *practice* [i.e. session], which is different, in my eyes, from actually "riding"). So yeah, I wear armor every time I ride. Shit happens, and why not protect myself for when it does? This endo I had on Friday, was actually my first real downhill endo. Up until this point, I hadn't actually done it while going downhill fast. As I specified, before this I had either slid to the side (which is not an endo, and as far as I'm concerned, doesn't hurt in the same way), or had endo'd at relatively slow speed because I was being timid about the terrain I was riding (I have since started sessioning those types of areas with great success!). I was confidently going down a hill I had dozens of times. But guess what? Shit happened and it was time for me to do my first "spectacular" endo. Glad I was wearing protective gear like I always do, because it could have been worse. I'm going to continue to wear protective gear. And next summer when I start riding up in Big Bear again, and in Mammoth, I'm going to wear my newly purchased RockGardn flak jacket. And anyone who faults me for it can bite me.
