Riding through the pain...

Last Saturday, while the Princess was out being a Princess with my sister, I was out for a ride with my bestest friend.

For the record, since his version of the story differs slightly from reality, here's what happened;
We left from my place and got about 5 miles out and were riding on a fairly crappy section of road with a bad lighted intersection. The asphalt is really bumpy from all the buses and large delivery trucks that pass through. Squirrel was riding behind me and keeping an eye on the ground, avoiding the nasty potholes/ asphalt mounds, when the light at the intersection turned red. Since that particular intersection is one you do NOT want to run at the light, I applied the stoppers... while Squirrel was still avoiding potholes. He looked up just in time to see my largeness becoming rapidly larger in front of him. But it was a bit too late and he ran right in to me- essentially taking the bike out from under me. We both hit the deck pretty good- I skid across the ground on the heel of my carbon soled shoes (burned a hole through the heel) before landing right on my tail bone. He ate up his ankle and knuckles pretty good too. But both of us got up and we rode an additional 48+ miles, for about 53 miles on the day. Since he was coming off of recovering from shoulder surgery, the crash was a little bit spooky for us both, but he was just a little bruised and we were both laughing as we rode away. The fallout for me is that my tail bone is still super sore. Almost as sore as when I cracked it in a crash on the track during a race 4 years ago. I feel better on my bike saddle than I do in a chair, but I can't get too much power generated. Standing to climb or sprint is a little painful and applying 100% power while seated is nearly impossible. BUT... nothing seems to be really messed up and I think I can continue riding as things heal.

It's been dumping rain here all day, but it will hopefully stop and dry out so that I can ride tomorrow morning. If the rear end can handle the ride without too much problem and the weather cooperates, then I'll try racing at the track on Sunday morning. During the winter this year, there will be races on the first Sunday of each month. I'm hoping to get out and put some punishment on my legs and see just where they really are. Maybe, if I'm still too sore, I'll just sandbag and ride the B or C group races, instead of the A races. I'd rather get some laps than not get any laps. Plus, it's always good to hang at the track with all my fellow racers. So we'll see what happens Sunday- I'll try to remember the camera too.

Enjoy your weekend, whether you walk, ride, run, swim or simply read a good book. Enjoy it.

Tim