Some people do math in their head...

I've been riding in my head. Hey people. Behold the awesome T-shirt I picked-up for a song at Threadless T's. I thought it was perfect for commemorating my freshman year of mountain biking.

When I first began going over to the trail it was to run. I fell in love with the woods, and the fun swoopiness of the trail. I couldn't run on pavement because of a tibia fracture that seems like it's never going to be 100% healed (still hurts- bone pain the doc says may never really go away), so finding an off-road option was like someone handing me an oxygen mask.

Then I began seeing things over there, like this sign (and the occasional plastic bird, garden of car parts, fake severed limb), that indicated whoever this trail was all about, there was something different about them-- a bit edgy, a bit off. Then I began seeing riders. Most of the trail was difficult even on foot. I couldn't imagine taking a bike on it. They were nuts! And I loved watching them.

I hate running mid summer. Way too hot, and bugs come out. Blech. I'm usually riding my bike or kayaking then. So I didn't get back to the trail until it got cool again. Then on a run I stumbled- literally- onto a winter bike race.

Remember this post? This shot? I still couldn't imagine myself doing what they did, but seeing them made me want to do it, to wish I could do what they were doing. (I now know some of the guys from this and the other voyeuristic pics I took that day-- so cool!)

So as soon as the snow melted and the mud dried up me and Trusty Pam began poking around the edges a bit. The very first time we took our road bikes over there. We had fun fooling around on a small beginner section, enough to put ideas in our heads.

Here we are on about our second ride. I decided to borrow Dan's "mountain bike"-- which we soon found out was only kind of a fake mountain bike, but still, better than my hula bike. In what would become her trademark style-- Pam ended the ride caked with dirt and scraped-up from a spill. She has gotten way more dirty and bloodied-up doing this than me-- and she's still in. That's how fun it is!

After venturing over there on my own on Dan's bike for a while, which didn't seem to shift very well, and was too big for me, I decided to bite the bullet and get my very own mountain bike-- Penny.

Then it was on. I was over there almost every day this summer, lots of times by myself, and other times with Pam after work.

I had no idea what I was doing most of the time. I rode alone and tried to figure out how to ride by looking at Youtube. Lots of the trail scared the hell out of me. I made it a goal to try one scary new thing on each ride. Eventually, I stayed on the bike more than than I got off and walked, and things that were terrifying the first time I contemplated them became, if not routine, doable.

I made my goal of learning to do a wheelie by my birthday in June-- even though it was very small, and brief-- not the kind where you ride along with your wheel in the air like I wanted. This doesn't come naturally to me. I have to work really hard at it, and am still not very good. But I like it.

It's probably the funnest thing to come along for me in recent years. Hanging out in the woods, being all darey, getting to know the other nutballs over there, that high you get when you accomplish something new, even when it scares you... The combination is very addicting to me.

When I've been able to ride consistently, every day, the bike begins to feel very natural, like an extension of my body or something. I get faster, better. I'm competitive with myself, start timing my runs, racking up features. It's so challenging for me I hardly ever have a run where I'm successful at riding every feature on my possible list, and of course even when I break my own record for a lap I'm not satisfied, knowing to be really good I'd have to knock 10 or 15 minutes off my time. But weirdly that's one of the reasons I love it so much.

My ribs still hurt and my right leg is still a tiny bit numb from my huge crash in July (hopefully the biggest one I'll ever have), but even knowing falls and crashes are inevitable doesn't deter me. It's that fun-- and I'm by no means a giant hard ass. (If anyone want to try this-- contact me!)

Now that there is snow on the ground riding season is over for me. I'm considering trying winter riding, but conditions would make getting regular rides in impossible, even IF I could manage to do it without wiping-out every 10 feet. So for now I'm amusing myself with riding in my head.

I'm writing again-- a new project, and I'm making my main character-- a girl with a huge secret she's protecting, a mountain biker. Of course she's only 17, and much more daring, and a way better rider than me. It probably sounds weird to those of you who don't write, but I really can kind of live vicariously in my imagination though her, and ride in my head.

In my head I'm a super star of course!

I've been telling you for a while about my trail obsession. Is there anything you've been dying to try, or anything you've found lately that's really fun to do? What's your latest passion?