Unbelievable. I crashed again. 4 1/2 hours into my ride last Saturday, I was heading south on PCH along Carbon Beach when a car heading the other direction pulled an impromptu illegal U-turn right in front of me. He thought he could make the full turn without incident, but realized he couldn’t clear the lane and had to stop. There was no way I could clear him, so I braked hard but I was too close. My front wheel locked up and the rear wheel lifted as I somersaulted into his passenger side door.
I racked my left knee pretty good and slammed my ribs. But like any dedicated endurance athlete, all I wanted to do was shake it off and get back on my bike, even though the bullhorns on my new Felt TT bike had cracked. So after exchanging info, that’s exactly what I did, riding for another 2 1/2 hours. I’m not the smartest guy when it comes to stuff like this — impulse takes over.
When I got home and the adrenaline wore off, my knee was yellow and very swollen and my ribs ached. I iced and did my best to get it under control, but it was clear that the wreck was a bit worse than I wanted to admit to myself.
So I took a few days off, hoping all would heal in short shrift. Sure enough, my knee is much better and looks like my ribs are just bruised, nor broken. I tried to swim yesterday, but it was just too painful. But today I got out on the bike for 2 hours and rode well. Actually really well, as I haven’t taken a couple days off my legs in months — I felt totally tapered! Anyway all seems to be mending, but honestly another crash was very debilitating for me mentally. I have been hitting such a great stride lately as I head into serious UM prep and really did not want any interruptions in my training. But alas, you know what they say — if you want to make God laugh, just tell him what your plans are…
Just grateful it wasn’t more serious. And its given me the opportunity to work on my poor acceptance skills — fighting it only increases my suffering…
Going to try to run tomorrow to see how the ribs and knees hold up. Keep ya posted:)
