better than coffee?
holy shit I just nearly died.
okay, 'die' is an overstatement. how about, I just nearly smeared half my skin across the pavement at Burnside.
God that was terrifying.
So I'm biking to the gym, and kind of frustrated because I kept missing all the lights and I'm already running late. Up ahead of me is a large intersection (both busy and very wide across), and the light's already green. So I'm pushing pretty hard to get through the light, but alas, it turns amber just before I hit the intersection. I'm not about to fly through a yellow on ma bike, so I bear down on both of my brakes.
And my back tire totally skids out from under me. You know that sound that cars make when they brake really hard before an intersection? I didn't know bikes could make the same sound. Neither did anyone else around me, I think -- I could sense all the drivers around me just holding their breath and waiting to see if I'd go down. And I really thought I was going to.
Oddly, there was a moment in which I decided not to fall. You might think that's not actually a conscious decision one can make, but it worked out in this case. I've slid across the road under my bike before, and still have a scar from it -- but mostly I'm still pissed off that that fall ruined my favorite pair of jeans and scared me away from biking for a number of months. Plus, I was wearing yoga pants this morning and I had a very clear picture in my head as to how my legs would look if I went down.
So I rode out the skid. Stood up on the pedals and shifted my weight forward a bit. Stopped with my front tire about a foot into the crosswalk. And trembled through the rest of the light cycle, from all the adrenaline pumping through my system. But I made it safely to the gym, had a good workout, and got back home again safe & sound.
All in all, I think I much prefer caffeine to adrenaline for my morning wake-up call.
okay, 'die' is an overstatement. how about, I just nearly smeared half my skin across the pavement at Burnside.
God that was terrifying.
So I'm biking to the gym, and kind of frustrated because I kept missing all the lights and I'm already running late. Up ahead of me is a large intersection (both busy and very wide across), and the light's already green. So I'm pushing pretty hard to get through the light, but alas, it turns amber just before I hit the intersection. I'm not about to fly through a yellow on ma bike, so I bear down on both of my brakes.
And my back tire totally skids out from under me. You know that sound that cars make when they brake really hard before an intersection? I didn't know bikes could make the same sound. Neither did anyone else around me, I think -- I could sense all the drivers around me just holding their breath and waiting to see if I'd go down. And I really thought I was going to.
Oddly, there was a moment in which I decided not to fall. You might think that's not actually a conscious decision one can make, but it worked out in this case. I've slid across the road under my bike before, and still have a scar from it -- but mostly I'm still pissed off that that fall ruined my favorite pair of jeans and scared me away from biking for a number of months. Plus, I was wearing yoga pants this morning and I had a very clear picture in my head as to how my legs would look if I went down.
So I rode out the skid. Stood up on the pedals and shifted my weight forward a bit. Stopped with my front tire about a foot into the crosswalk. And trembled through the rest of the light cycle, from all the adrenaline pumping through my system. But I made it safely to the gym, had a good workout, and got back home again safe & sound.
All in all, I think I much prefer caffeine to adrenaline for my morning wake-up call.