I’m at the beginning of a 6 day off stretch from work, and wouldn’t you know it… I come down with some sort of gastroenteritis (stomach bug, LOL) and have spent all day sleeping or lounging due to the upset stomach and body aches. Woe is me… it is especially bad since I just brought home my new TT bike yesterday AND joined a gym, and yet I can’t do anything due to be sick.
So 2012… wow, what an interesting year! Definitely one of those years where when I started the year I didn’t imagine I’d be where I was at when it came to an end! So here’s a hodge-podge review of 2012! Probably not the greatest, but I’m running a fever 😛
I started out 2012 in western Washington state during a visit to see Matt. We spent New Year’s Day driving up the Olympic peninsula to Port Angeles in hopes of seeing some whales. We didn’t find any, but we did get to listen to some awesome Canadian radio stations and hang out on Ediz Hook before heading back down to Lacey.
The spring months of 2012 were spent wrapping up my final semester of nursing school. I was able to get out and do some car photography, and spent Spring Break visiting Matt in Washington again.
Upon Matt’s move out to Wyoming, he pestered me more and more about getting some sort of bike so I could ride with him. After doing some hiking in Vedauwoo and realizing the mountain biking potential of southeastern Wyoming, we settled on buying mountain bikes as a way to get me on a bike.
On May 15th we bit the bullet and bought the mountain bikes. We headed out on the Greenbelt in Laramie for a ride, and I quickly tired after about… well… 1/4 of a mile? I hadn’t ridden a bike in 14 years, so it was all strange to me, along with the fit I didn’t have an ounce of fitness in my body.
It didn’t really discourage me, and within a week I was riding hiking the Death Crotch trail at Happy Jack and dabbling in my first singletrack experiences. When I rode 5 miles I thought I was the awesomest person on a bike ever!
For Memorial Weekend we headed up to Devils Tower, and then over to South Dakota. Plans were to ride a stretch of the Mickelson Trail. Well, low and behold we ended up riding about 30 miles on it! Still can’t believe I did that to this day only 2 weeks after buying a bike! (Now in 2013 we want to ride it again for comparison)
On June 26th I did my first ever mountain bike race. I was actually doing pretty damn well before I decided to fly off the bike, slide on my head for a ways, and donate some skin from my elbow. Ended up 4th, which still shocked me as I was expecting to not even be able to finish! This started my obsession with racing, and I ended up fitting two more races in my summer.
In August we on a whim decided to do the Ride for Sight in Cheyenne. We started off wanting to do 50 miles, which turned into 62 miles, which ended up as 75 miles. I do not understand the meaning of “slowly build your miles.”
In November I hooked up with a new women’s cycling team in Fort Collins, the Fort Follies. Did a few group rides and made some new friends!
Here we are at the end of December… bike collection is steadily growing, Matt and I are on a race team, and I’ve even begun registering for races this spring/summer. I do find myself thinking “wow, who I am?!” from time to time… just crazy how much this single year as changed my life. Matt and I no longer are in different time zones, I finally finished up and became an RN, I am in shape enough I can ride 75 miles on a bike, I’ve lost 15 pounds in what I feel in a very healthy/natural/permanent way, and I have a crazy new hobby to occupy my time!
I’m definitely looking forward to 2013. New adventures, new travels, new friends, and new memories! We plan on traveling to Fruita, CO; Durango, CO; and Pennsylvania for races. My BFF in the whole world is going to come visit for a week in June. I’ll finish up my BSN degree and maybe finally be done with college for awhile after 11 years. And hopefully I learn to stop falling off my mountain bike so much, or at least maybe I’ll learn to wear some elbow pads 😀
Heidi Rides Bikes 