Faceplant.

I went up to Preston and Manchester last weekend to catch up with some friends.

In Preston I saw Jeff and Claire and had a good night out in Preston, well as good as you can probably get in Preston anyhow. Some of the women there are very, very rough!

On Saturday I was invited to Anne and Dave's place for their daughter Jennifer's second birthday party. We partied the night away, well the day away at least. I also managed to catch up with a few other friends that I don't see often enough these days which was good.

Dave and I had an original plan to go mountain biking in Delamere forest on Sunday morning and then head up to the Lake District on Monday as we both had a couple of days off work.

The mountain biking in the forest was fantastic. It was very muddy in places and we both had a great time cycling around the trails and off the trails as well. On one path which had lots of deep mud puddles we both managed to flip over our handle bars in separate incidents! I was cycling along as fast as I could and saw the puddles of water and noticed that they were getting a little deep, but figured if I kept on cycling fast through them I should be ok. Unfortunately I went though a very deep one and my front wheel dug into the mud and I was sent flying over my handlebars into the next mud puddle.

There was no real damage but I was totally caked in mud on one side and I had to pull out the front of my bike from the mud. It really was everywhere, I couldn't even see my bike trip computer. Dave managed to do the same thing a few seconds later as he took the lead. It looked quite funny to see him fly over the handle bars as he had seen me do earlier on.

We also cycled up the big hill in the area and I was particularly pleased as I managed to cycle all the way to the top with only one stop along the way. At the top I was really gasping for air but I was so happy that I managed to get to the top and only stopped once. Next time I'll have to have a go at getting to the top without stopping at all.

There's a small downhill course in the forest with some small jumps and sloped bends that you can pick up quite a bit of speed on. I was leading the way on this course when I got a bit of speed on a bend and then went over a bump only to come across another bump straight away. I remember the last time we were here I stopped at this point to negotiate the second bump. Unfortunately this time I went much faster and my front wheel went into, rather than over the second bump and then I went over my bike handlebars. Because I was going so fast and landed on the second bump, I ended up first landing on the front of my helmet and then the bottom half of my face!

I was quite lucky to have a visor on the front of my bike helmet as that saved most of my face. It dug into the earth and broke, but then my mouth and chin were next. My bike then came crashing down onto me as my SPDs (peddles) didn't disconnect straight away. At first I sat there and screamed out in pain, thinking that I had broken my nose. Dave came along a few seconds later to see how I was. He first said he thought I had broken my nose because of the blood. I pushed onto the bridge of my nose but didn't feel as much pain as I expected. There was a bit of blood and I think I'm still finding bits of grit in my mouth. At the time it was difficult to see where I had cut myself as I was covered in so much mud and sand.

Here's a list of my aches and pains, I had grazed my top lip and bruised my bottom lip with a few bruises over my face, my left hand is quite swollen and I can't make a fist, both my knees are bruised and grazed as are my forearms and I have a case of whiplash on my neck. I also have some grazes on my chest where it followed my face into the earth. Oddly enough my throat is also really sore as my bike helmet strap must have pulled on my adam's apple when I helmet hit the earth. Ouch! It looks like Dave had just taken me out to the forest and beaten me up a bit. Two days after the accident I think my joints ache the most, maybe my body is trying to tell me something? At least I have a good excuse for not visiting the gym this morning and I don’t feel guilty at not going. Maybe I’ll take a few days off from exercise for now.

It did hurt quite a bit but I'm still really happy to have had the fun that I did on the day, even up to and after the big crash. I think that the thing that cursed me was just before we set off on the small downhill course I was saying to Dave that I was really having a good time and really enjoyed the thrill we got from mountain biking. Doh!

On Monday we had to cancel our trip to the Lake District because I really couldn't move my left hand very well so couldn't brake or change the gears on my bike, otherwise I would have really liked to go again.

I was really lucky not to have broken any bones or lost any teeth, even so I would definitely do it all again because it was so much fun and I've never felt so alive than that morning. I can't wait to get back on my bike again and get to the Lakes another time.

At least my bike made it without anything breaking, but it's time for a new helmet, now what colour should I go for this time and should it have a full face guard or not?