bike helmets

Ahhhh, the bike helmet. Today I am grateful for this wonderful piece of foam and plastic because it saved me from yet another concussion. While I love my road bike, I seem to crash a lot.... and that I do not like. Before I became a 'roadie', I would have never been caught dead in a helmet. Bad hair, dorky lookin', etc. However, I now swear by the helmet. I have clipless pedals, which basically means that my bike shoes are attached to the pedal. When you stop, you have to clip your shoe out of the pedal by twisting your ankle and yanking. The bottom of the bike shoe is slick, so if you try to pedal while not clipped in, your foot is gonna slip right off. This contraption gets some getting use to. It took me about a month..... and a lot of falls. Now it's no problem (it's been almost 2 years I think), but... every once in a while something wacky happens and boom-I'm on the pavement again.

Today I went out for a ride with Jay (the 2nd ride since we moved here.... and he forced me to go-I was SO not in the mood). It's REALLY hilly around here. Really, really hilly. We had to stop at a stoplight. Okay, no problem. When the light turned green, I started to go but before I got my foot clipped in, I started to slow WAY down.... uh oh. The street was going uphill and I didn't have enough momentum and couldn't downstroke again and before I know it, in slow-mo, I was tipping over. Landed on my knee and wrist first (as usual) then the noggin. In the middle of the street! SO lame. SOOOOOOO lame.

Anyway, today I am grateful for bike helmets. I'm dingy enough these days without concussions to make it worse. Sheesh.

(Oh, and Holly-yes, I know I was suppose to be running, and if I had been running I wouldn't have this problem. However, I was in a mood and we're lucky I even left the house. I can hardly walk up these damn hills, let alone run up them. Can you tell I'm a little frustrated!!!!!