Lesson 1: Do not run into brick walls, even at under 2 mph. My first bit of riding was going fairly smoothly, riding around in circles around a small building's empty parking lot. Stayed in neutral and first gear, at idle it has enough power to pull away in first. Getting a feel for steering and handling. Starting appropriately, shifting into first gear without it stalling. Practiced stopping. The front hand brake doesn't pack a lot of punch but the rear foot brake peddle has a strong bite. The idea is to not use solely one brake or the other, but to use them in concert; a 40:60 ratio to bring the bike to a stop quicker. Today, I was just getting a feel for how the individual brakes perform. I was then asked to try tighter circles. It is here that I learned what target fixation is. And that, even though my brain was telling me otherwise to not head straight for that big mud puddle off of the pavement next to the brick wall, that I knew I should turn away, I knew I should have at least hit the breaks, I still headed for the wall, in slow motion, literally at 2 mph, and did exactly what I shouldn't have. The bike hit, it fell over, I jumped off, it lay there still running on its side. I walked away unscathed by this, the bike has a few scuffs. Not exactly battle scars... more like battle bruises. I am terribly shaken up by this. Mostly because I'm just angry at myself for letting it happen. Tears of frustration and disappointment fell. Mark was not surprised. Riding looks a lot easier than it actually is. He says everyone who ever first starts learning to ride a motorcycle does this. Hopefully I've gotten it out of my system. After my nerves settled, I was back on the bike, first with Mark turning in a tighter radius so I could feel what the bike will do when turning so tightly. Then I was back to using the brakes, practicing coming to a quicker stop. Tomorrow, we will go out again. My goal is to not stall when shifting into first for a smooth start, circle in a tighter radius, brake like I mean it and to not run into any brick walls.