The

Undeniable

Ruth

®

…and the Ruth shall set you free!

  • Getting Back on the Horse…err, I mean Bike

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    Ruth Carter

    I love riding my bike. I love that when I’m biking or running the rest of the world just disappears. It’s just me and the road and the wind in my face. I love the feeling of my muscles propelling me down the road. If you haven’t tried them, the Phoenix canals are an awesome place to work out. They’re well-maintained and you can go for miles without having to worry about being hit by cars.

    With my leg injuries last year, I was doing all my cardio on my bike. I was riding 13 miles, 3 times a week, and doing an extra long 18-mile ride on the weekend. I was riding so much I was ready to get a pair of padded-butt shorts and starting to look for a 50 or 100-mile charity bike ride to inspire me to up my training.

    And then the accident happened.

    Day After my Bike Accident - Look Where my Head Crashed into my Helmet
    Day After my Bike Accident – Look Where my Head Crashed into my Helmet

    I tracked my friend while he was doing his first half Ironman and I felt so lazy in comparison vegging at home. So I suited up and headed out for a 13-mile ride. It was a gorgeous sunny October afternoon. I was still tired from Ignite Phoenix a few days before and a full Saturday of events but it felt good to feel my quad muscles working beneath me. I was about 2 miles from getting back home when I headed through an underpass. A skateboarder was ahead of me, right in the middle of the path so I couldn’t safely pass him. I went to ring my bell to alert him of my presence and somehow my hand slipped over it. I was on the downward ramp and picking up speed so I slammed on my brakes to avoid colliding with him.

    The good news is my brakes work great. My bike stopped on a dime.
    The bad news is I didn’t.

    I went over my handlebars and I slammed into the ground, my legs tangled up in my bike frame. My helmet protected my head, but the fall rattled it pretty hard. The skateboarder heard me crash and came back to see if I was OK. I sat up and did a quick head-to-toe injury check – both knees were scraped up along with both wrists and my left elbow.

    Singing at Christmas Service - Check out my Elbow Scars
    Singing at Christmas Service – Check out my Elbow Scars

    I walked home, threw away my ripped shirt, and took a shower and gently scrubbed the dirt out of my wounds. I wasn’t sure I didn’t have a concussion or a broken elbow so I rested without pain meds until the next day. I slathered my wounds with antibiotic ointment for weeks until they healed, and now I’m left with scars on my wrists and elbows that vary in color from light pink to dark purple depending on how cold I am. I hate my scars.

    Since the accident, I’ve barely ridden my bike. I have ridden along the canal but now I slow down on the underpass ramps instead of flying under the streets. I told myself I wasn’t riding because it was cold in the winter, but now that excuse is gone. I think part of me is still really nervous about riding. I’d never had a bad accident like that before. The only thing that comes close is getting hurt in gymnastics but they have you back out working your skills again as soon as it’s safe. With this, there’s no coach telling me have to do it and encouraging me every step of the way.

    Last week I shared my list of cool stuff I want to do this spring. I think I need to add “regularly riding my bike” to the list. It will be a nice supplement to my new running regimen. And I still think I’d like to do some type of charity bike ride so if anyone knows of one in the Phoenix area, perhaps in the fall, please let me know!

  • I’m Having Fun This Spring – Who’s In?

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    Ruth Carter

    One of the challenges of being a business owner is your days are unstructured except for the structure you impose on them yourself. And since there’s always something that needs to get done in the business, it’s easy to get trapped behind my laptop for hours on end, even on the weekend. I realized that I need to schedule in some fun so I get a much needed re-charge at time and enjoy all that the Phoenix area has to offer.

    Photo by Devon Christopher Adams - used with permission
    Photo by Devon Christopher Adams – used with permission

    I’ve decided that I’m going to have more fun this spring and make an effort to get out to more events. Here’s what’s on my to-do list this spring.

    I also want to learn to do some new things this year. I think I’ll sign up for some lessons this spring.

    • Skateboarding – I have a feeling that I might be good at this.
    • Golf – I want to learn how to hit a golf ball so I can go to the driving range without making a fool of myself.
    • Trapeze – Santa got me two trapeze lessons. This is going to be awesome!

    There’s one more thing I really want to do this spring – take a day trip to Jerome. I’ve heard it’s a charming place. I think it would be fun to go up there for lunch and to wander around the shops for a few hours.

    So that’s what’s on my fun to-do list for the next few months. If there’s anything you want to do with me, let me know!

  • I Want to be an Amtrak Writer in Residence

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    Ruth Carter

    Writers all over the U.S. are excited that Amtrak is offering people the opportunity to be a writer in residence. Jessica Gross was the first writer in residence and she rode and wrote from New York to Chicago and back again. What a great 39-hour adventure! I love the idea of getting on the train and going head-down into a project with the gentle rumbling of the train beneath you and the world zipping by out the window.

    AZ Diamondbacks Game, Phoenix AZ - June 2010
    AZ Diamondbacks Game, Phoenix AZ – June 2010

    If I was chosen to do this, I think I’d want to travel from Tucson to New Orleans and back again. It would be a little over 70 hours total on the train. Because it’s such a long trip, I think I’d like to stay in New Orleans for a day or two to recharge my batteries, evaluate where I am in my writing process, and strategize what I wanted to crank out on the return trip. I’ve never been to New Orleans, so I’d want to find a place to take a handstand picture and maybe visit Storyland or Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop – the oldest bar in the U.S. I don’t drink but it would be fun to visit as I’m sure plenty of other writers have spent many hours there to rest and recharge while working on a project.

    I’ve been a writer and a blogger for over four years and I love it. Every so often I find a project that I just can’t work on at home – I’m too easily distracted by chores or anything that’s not my writing. Sometimes when that happens, I banish myself from the house until my work gets done. I’ll go to a coffee shop or a library with the expectation that I’m there to work and I can’t leave until my work gets done. I turn off the internet and put my phone where I can’t see it or hear it and get to work. That’s usually enough to force me to put pen to paper or fingers to the keyboard and crank out what I need to get done – usually faster than I anticipated.

    Amtrak 353 by jpmueller99 from Flickr (Creative Commons License)
    Amtrak 353 by jpmueller99 from Flickr (Creative Commons License)

    I’ve been toying with doing some memoir work for years. I have a basic outline of what I’d want to include and the format for each chapter but it’s been a challenge to find the time and creative space to sit down and let the ideas flow. I would need big blocks of time to sit write without distractions, where I can sit in quiet contemplation, where I could lock into my zone and let my fingers fly over my keyboard. I’d love to be an Amtrak writer in residence to work on this project.

    So Amtrak, if you’re serious about offering other people the chance to be a writer in residence, I hope you’ll pick me.