I did a 55 minute training ride this evening, just shaking into adult
bicycling still. I've gotten in about three weeks of riding so far. Two
weeks back, I put stirrups on the pedals, because of an old ACL injury
- finally getting used to them.

So how did I wind up dumping myself in the grass, you ask? Dog. In
fact, got charged three times by the same dog, cussed out by the owner
of the dog because I made the mistake of trying to herd the nasty
little guy back to his even nastier owner (not the dog's fault his
owner is a moron, I figure) because she thought I was 'attacking' her
dog with my bike. Ummm, yeah, you can't even catch up with the dog in
your tennies, you think I can in bike cleats?

So, I get cussed, dog eventually loses interest in person standing
behind bike telling him authoritatively he is a 'bad dog', 'sit', and
'go home!' (not that he listened), I ride slowly off, watching. Sure
enough, he loops around owner and owner's kids, comes back for more
fun. I manage to ward him off, but in process, go down in the grass. No
injuries, 'cept my pride. Owner left behind in the interim. Dog goes
off to another street. I cycle back to owner, tell her 'charged me
again, dumped me this time, now he's over on (nearby street's name).'
Ride off while owner is gaping because I came back to tell her where
her lost dog was.

How do you rank the most common dangers you encounter by risk? Meaning
not just severity (cars!) but frequency (kids!). I'm not yet riding on
the Real Roads, but when I do I suppose I'll be missing that nasty
little dog in comparison to the traffic.

Zia