A Setback

I suppose it would be a bit unrealistic to think the entire training season would go off without a hitch.  I had a minor setback way back in June when I got the sniffles and was too sick to do my full scheduled training sessions.


A scene similar to the scene of the accident.

This time, the setback is a little more painful.  Riding along the San Gabriel River bike bath, on one side is a rather steep concrete wall down to the actual river itself (see picture).  On Saturday, near mile 40 of my century training ride, I may have went a bit too close to the edge and hit some loose dirt or gravel at 18 mph or so.  I'm told my rear wheel fish-tailed, and within a split-second, I knew I was going down.  Rather than tumbling down to the river, I knew it'd be better to fall onto the path (and hope nobody runs me over).  That's pretty much as close to figuring out what happened as I can get.  In the aftermath, my rear brake cable was a bit loose and my right-hand levers (brakes and shifter) were out of alignment.  I couldn't use my rear brakes for the remainder of the ride, but I still managed to finish the ride as scheduled.

The bike was taken for a full mechanical tune-up after the ride, which was already overdue and now absolutely needed.

  

Beyond the bike, the spill gave me some lovely road rash on my left forearm and tricep, left outer thigh and bruising on both my right and left legs.  My bib has a bit of rash on it, though it didn't rip. My jersey has a few extra holes in it now (which I thought odd, wouldn't it rip, not just get holes?), and surprisingly, my helmet seems completely unscathed.  This may be because I instinctively threw up my arms to cover my head when I knew I was going down.



The day after: damage assessment



This is a bit of a setback.  I did not go on my scheduled Sunday open water swim because of the open wound.  Monday's long run was also cut short because the bruises on my legs were bothering me too much - with every step, my legs reminded me I am bruised up.  In a race situation, I would have kept on running but thought better of it for training purposes.

This coming weekend will be my last Olympic triathlon before the Ironman.  The arm and legs should be healed up after a week and the bike will be back from the shop, good as new.  Hopefully I'll be able to get some light training in during the week.



Many thanks to my Iron Sherpa, who is also now my own Florence Nightingale (and the person who was kind enough not to run me over).