1st ride back!

I was finally cleared by my doctor to ride on Wednesday! He said just no weight-lifting or boxing and I'm good. I thought about the amount of force exerted on my hands by the handlebars when I'm flying downhill on the bike and have to simultaneously brake hard and maneuver up/over/around an obstacle.... I said NOTHING but thank you Doc! :)

I had thought A LOT about where my 1st trail ride would be. South Mountain? Hawes? Phoenix has a lot of good options but most are fairly rocky and technical and I thought I should do something a little smoother that would have a lower probability of possible crashes. (haha)

Well Amy & I made a last minute decision to head to Flagstaff for the weekend and that made the decision easy. The 1st ride would be on my favorite Flagstaff trails - Mount Elden. Since it was just Amy, the kids & me, I'd have to go solo on the ride while she watched the kids. Rarely do I ride solo but this seemed appropriate since I really wanted to go at my own pace and reacquaint myself with the trails, the bike and gauge my bike "fitness".


The trails were in perfect shape, the weather was fantastic and the ride was incredible. It was nice to be back on the bike and even nicer to be riding in Flagstaff! I happily enjoyed the miles of suffering - climbing above 8,000 ft after the 3-month hiatus. I've got a long way to go to get ready for the Birthday Challenge, but this was a great start.