Ouch

That's kinda how my knee and shoulder feel right now after last night.

Last night I thought it would be a good idea to work on my night riding skills so I geared up and rode on down to Memorial Park. The ride down was good and the temperature was nice. The night was clear and I thought it was a great night for riding. The singletrack was good and I was feeling good until about 2 miles into the ride when I clipped a tree with my handlebars and bit it bad. Apparently when I clipped the tree my front wheel must have been off the ground and when I landed it must have been almost sideways. I heard the bead on the tire break as I was sailing over the handle bars and then the bike landed on top of me. I'm sure the crash was pretty awesome to watch. The I got up and realized I bent the wheel pretty good:

I picked myself up and walked my poor bike out to the entrance to Memorial Park and waited until my friend Josh arrived to pick me up. On my walk out I noticed my leg was a little sore and then I felt the large bump on my knee, from the handlebars? It was pretty sore by the time I got home so I just chilled and hung out with Josh for a bit.

This morning the knee was pretty sore but it feels considerably better now. The shoulder feels alright too. The wheel should be ok, the hub and spokes are all intact so hopefully I only need to replace the rim. Maybe a couple days off would be good too . . .

Memorial Park Crit #2

Last week Lauren inspired my to do the Memorial Park Crit so I was excited and this and did it. It was hot and I wasn't sure how the race would go. After a good warm-up I lined up and away we went. I was a little apprehensive because there was a pretty good sized crash the last time I did this race. The group seemed to be much safer this time though and the race went well. I typically use these races as a workout so I wasn't too worried about saving myself to the end. I attacked about half way into the race but it was covered pretty quickly. Then I worked on sitting in the pack for a bit to recover which also went well. Coming down to the final lap I was feeling pretty good but, unfortunately, I went a little too early for the finish. I finished around 11th or so. It was a pretty fun race all in all.

Here's some pics:

Warm-up

Somewhere in the race

Lauren and I went down to Galveston to spend a day on the beach yesterday. It was quite a bit of fun. Seu had a great time swimming in the Gulf. After a drink and some sweet potato fries we headed back to Houston. Once we got home we realized the old sunscreen Lauren had wasn't so good anymore and we both had some interesting sunburn.