dana, this one's for you

kris has always enjoyed biking. i, on the other hand, have not. i didn't bike too much growing up - maybe it was the thought of sharing the two-lane 80km road with vehicles or being subjected to gravel roads that made me shy away from it. anyway, since we moved to the townhome in june 2008, i've been determined to be a better biker.

we started by fixing up the bike that i had. we got a super nice seat so my bum wouldn't hurt, got it tweaked and fixed, bought a helmet and i was ready.

we practiced on one of the out-of-the-way streets by our house. we would ride up and down it, and i would practice stopping, starting, turning and standing (again, to preserve le bum while going over bumps), but never pedalling and standing at the same time, noooh, that was just too much.

things since then have progressed pretty well. i've learned how to stand and pedal at the same time so hills are so much easier...i know what the gears do and how they help when biking up said hills...i am more confident sharing the road with cars and my legs don't start burning three seconds into our excursions.

we usually ride to the lake, because it's close, easy to get to, and once we get there, there's a bike path that we can follow. today, though, i got overconfident. i hate when that happens.

we ventured off the bike path, onto this dirt path that consisted of mostly pedestrians. i chose to get off and go around some of the pedestrians that didn't want to get out of my way. after sitting on a bench and enjoying the peacefulness and beautiful scenery, we continued on our way. this path was hilly and bumpy at times, but i was negotiating fantastically well...until i tried to scale a hill that was bigger than it looked, while trying to go around two ladies who wouldn't get out of my way. i ended up going slower and slower and slower up the hill until i was no longer moving at all...i worried about actually going backwards down the hill, but ended up just falling over instead. i wasn't hurt, although i got a nasty bruise on my leg pit (how come we all talk about arm pits, but no one references their leg pits? i hereby resolve to raise leg pit awareness) and a slight bruise to my ego. luckily, the ladies were inconsiderate and heard me fall but didn't bother to turn around.

gotta love toronto...the only place where you can hurt yourself and no one will bother to make sure you're okay, ensuring that you don't cry in front of strangers. home sweet home.