gayathri

I'm the sort of exhausted that comes from moving, being, and pushing myself. What an awesome day - I'd never been to santa cruz before, and we spent the day in and amongst the redwood trees - there's a scent there that's different from anyplace else.

Byronium was kind enough to join me in an introductory Mountain Bike Class - we went over basics like the parts of a mtn bike, being able to change tyres on the trail and other basics. We did some practice drills on keeping balanced, moving over obstacles, standing up on the pedals, up and downhill balance and body movement. Then we went out! each obstacle was stopped and talked about with tips on how to get thru. I couldnt do all of them, my balance and agility were not good enough, but I did what I could and got SIGNIFICANTLY better at the things I hadnt known how to do .

I'm strong enough to power up hills, and getting better at controlling my descent - shifting while going up hill is still problematic. I have a hill to practice on outside my apartment, tho, so I'm not worried about getting that going.

That was a super ton of fun! I couldnt make the entire 'technical' course, due to an asthma attack -- too much dope smoke at the fundraiser and the Mountain Goats concert last night, my lungs were not happy with me. So I stopped, and waited in the middle of these amazing trees, in a dappled grove, and just sat, concentrating on my breath for a good long time, until I could get it under control and not panic mindlessly.

once I was under control, I spent the time waiting for the rest of the class to get back, and just practiced back and forth on the section of trail I'd done already. It was good to be in the trees and keep moving, standing on the pedals, picking lines through the trail and rolling over tree roots, doing an uphill/downhill section a few times until I felt comfortable.

Wow. So Much Fun. Hard, scary, but still fun. I still laugh when byronium tells me I'm adventurous. I'm not, I'm curious to try things and still feel more comfortable doing something like mtn biking when he's with me, but at the same time, feel so amazingly great that its fatigue and asthma stopping me, not fear of the doing, or fear of the unknown, or the danger.