Week of highs and lows includes a new bike…and my first crash landing!

This has been a rather eventful week.

First of all, a quick branding update. You may have noticed that I changed the name of my blog from Healthy Beauty to Michelle Rogers Healthy Living, to reflect my focus on healthy lifestyles. As for the logo, the design coordinates with my communications business logo that I’ve used for several years.

Secondly, I got a new bike! Well, new to me. It’s a Diamondback Clarity that we found on Craigslist, in like-new condition, and I love it. What a difference from my old ride! Immediately I was able to go 2-3 mph faster as my standard speed, and with the gears I’m doing so much better on the hills.

I’m enjoying that, and also still loving starting my day with a sunrise and greetings from all the animals I see on my route.

I’m in my second month of cycling now, and as a newbie I’m still learning some of the basics. One thing I realized is that it’s important to take out and wash the pads in your helmet regularly. I am trying to get in the habit of doing this at least once a week, because with all the sweat it’s just nasty. The pads attach with Velcro, and are simple to remove. I wash them in a bowl with some Softsoap, rinse, and set them out to dry. It’s quick and easy.

Speaking of still learning, that brings me to the “down” part of the week — which was me, literally going down! I took my first (and hopefully last?) spill on my bike last weekend. It was a rookie mistake and happened very quickly. I was too close to the right edge of the road, swerved, my tire slipped on the edge, and I hit the pavement on my left side. Fortunately, I was on an incline and going slower at the time; and also no cars were coming.

I’m fine, just a bit scraped up and bruised. I’ve been putting vitamin E oil on the scrapes several times a day, and they are healing nicely. This wasn’t a fun experience, obviously, but it taught me an important lesson. As much as I don’t like being too far in the road, I don’t get so close to the edge anymore.