Subject: Mounting my bike, or lack thereof So, I’m all set for a 2 hour ride. I’m taking my tri bike and I leave the shoes clipped in. I’m on my front walk which is pretty short (10 yards maybe) and I have to make a 90 degree left turn to the sidewalk, then a 90 right turn down the apron of the driveway to the street. It’s a little tricky sometimes but not daunting by any means. I line up my left pedal so it’s parallel to the ground. I put my left foot on top of the shoe which is clipped in to the pedal, push off a bit with my right foot to get moving, shift my weight to my left foot with a down stroke of the pedal as I swing my right leg over the seat. I have a bottle on my rear mount cage so I have to lift extra high, and I’m looking at the walkway/sidewalk so I can make my hard left turn. No big deal. I’ve done this dozens of times. This time I must have been using too much body English preparing for the left turn because my left shoe twists and unclips from the pedal while I’m swinging my right leg over. It doesn’t take a physicist to figure out what happens when all your weight in on one foot, and that foot goes flying off the pedal. BAM! I fell hard right down on top of my bike. I thought I had smashed my ribs and driven them into my lung. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t move, I didn’t know what the hell was going on. Eventually I stand up to find that I’m scraped and bleeding from several areas, have a decent sized puncture hole on the lower inside of my right knee, and my chest feels like there is a spear stuck in it. Xrays show no broken ribs, wounds got cleaned up but no stitches on the puncture to help avoid infection, I am on antibiotics as a precaution, NSAIDs for pain, and am sore as hell. At least my bike is ok. Looks like I’ll be off training for a bit. Told the Doc I have a 5 hour bike ride on Sunday that I don’t intend to miss and she just shook her head and told me to take it easy for a few days. Heck, Sunday is a long way away, right? |