Bike Shop Girl is known to many of us as someone who loves to bike and loves to get other women on bikes.

In fact, her tag line for her blog is, “Helping women find their way in cycling”. 

A couple of months ago, Bike Shop Girl was hit by a car and as she noted on her Facebook page recently, she has been unable to get back on the road so far.

I understand her fear about getting back on the bike – on the road. 

I was hit by a car in June 1995.  Fortunately, I incurred relatively minor injuries and physically I was able to get back on the bike within a month after the accident.  Emotionally, it was a different story.

Eventually I did get back on and ride.  The first several times I rode, I stuck to trails around a local lake.  Once my strength and emotional/mental comfort was there I took to the roads again.

I remember being very fearful initially, but slowly my comfort riding in traffic increased.  It never returned to what it was before the wreck.  It never will.

You can’t go through something like that and not be changed by it.  I’m okay with that.  I ride smarter and more defensively than I did before I was hit.  

I believe Bike Shop Girl will get there too.  Those of us that follow her blog, or on Twitter or Facebook, offer encouragement through our comments.

We try to do for her what she has done for many female cyclists – encourage her to get on the bike and ride.

I won 10 pairs of socks!!  Ten pairs of Coolmax socks – which I found out are made almost entirely from ground up plastic bottles.   So they are not only good for my feet, but good for the environment too.  I like to do my part.

I’m a fan of Adventure Cycling Association on Facebook, last week they posted a question asking readers how we feed our cycling bug during the winter months.  To enter, you just had to post a comment.   So I did, and lucky for me, I won.

As far as I’m concerned, you can’t have too many socks.  Between the closet and dryer trolls, and my own toughness on socks (seriously hard on socks) I always need socks.  Especially the kind of socks that I wear biking or running.  And thanks to Adventure Cycling, I don’t think I will run out any time soon.

Now, if they just make me want to train indoors I will have it made.