Ride #3: Store Ride

I'm back! Sort of... I decided to do the store ride, though keeping it easy. It was nice to see all of the guys on the first part of the ride. When we got to Mississauga, Paul R and a couple of other people joined me and we rode straight up to Streetsville and didn't stop. We just wanted a nice easy ride... though I did miss the sprints! After the ride I felt pretty good. My neck was still sore while riding, and my back and chest ached a little, but considering where I was four weeks ago, I'm happy.

Second Ride

We went to my parent's house in Oakville today with the kids. I brought my bike and managed to get in a 50km continuous ride. There was definitely some pain (neck mostly - it's like I'd never ridden a road bike before). On the ride, I met and rode with a guy who was also just getting back on his bike. He had fallen the previous autumn by the ridiculous poles on the bike path by the Boulevard Club and suffered a pretty serious concussion. He was just getting back into cycling now... I reminded myself how lucky I had been.

First Ride

I had my first ride today. I did a light ride to the beaches and back. I could still hold around 30km/h fairly easily, but I needed to down an extra strength gel Advil within 20 minutes of leaving, as the pain in my chest and neck were getting to me.

I got stuck in a rainstorm on the way back and stopped in Queen's Quay to wait it out. Things are not working in my favour at the moment! Luckily, Beth has been quite the caregiver, and Abby and Robin... well, especially Abby are sensitive to the fact that I can't move around and wrestle with them like I usually do! I still get the occasional head butt in the chest from Rob, but that's to be expected.

Rehab

I the past few weeks, I've been trying everything possible to recover... herbal supplements, ART, physio, massage (not that kind Murray!), rest etc. I'm determined to ride the whole Tour for Kids. Last Thursday, I got back on my bike for the first time - ok, it was attached to my trainer downstairs, but I was able to do about 30 minutes for very light pedaling. The worst part while in the position is my neck, followed by my back and chest. I still have a lot of pain breathing, but as I exercise, it seems to get a little better.

Saturday, I was able to do 45 minutes on the trainer, with some harder efforts. My legs feel pretty strong, but I'm worried about the endurance dropping off. Before my accident, I was able to do 200km, even 240km without too much effort and with my legs feeling pretty good after. Now, I'm not so sure...

Today, I'm in Kansas City on Business - I plan on going to the gym three times to get some 1 hour rides with more intensity on the reciprocal stationary bikes.

I can't believe the tour is next week...

Crash!

Wow... my life flashed before my eyes. I really thought I was a goner.

I was on a training ride with Kelly and our coach Pierre. We met up Appleby line in Burlington and the plan was to do a bunch of circuits of an upcoming race route (Kelly was thinking of doing the race the following Sunday). The course has a number of good hills and a couple of killer descents - without pedaling I would get up to 70km/h quite easily.

I must say, for heavier cyclists (like me!), it is quite the reward to zoom down hills after dragging your ass up a hill while watching little pixies virtually fly up the hill. We had done 5 or 6 loops of the circuit and I was getting pretty lulled into a false sense of no traffic (there was absolutely no traffic at all!).

I was descending 4th Sideroad (see map below) and into a left turn at 60km/h right in the center of the road. A car appeared coming up towards me. I think if I hadn't adjusted, I may have just missed him, but he spooked me. I adjusted my course, but I was going to fast and my trajectory had me headed straight for a three foot deep ditch....



I went down hard and it was very painful. I thought I'd broken my back. I couldn't move and I had a mouth full of gravel. My first thoughts were that I was going to miss something because of the crash but I couldn't remember what... that's it, I remembered, that Thursday was the midnight premiere for the Dark Knight! No, no, that wasn't it... then I rememembered... in 4 weeks I was going to the Tour for Kids. Shit!

I remember the driver of the pickup asking me a bunch of questions, and Kelly and Pierre as well. Luckily another cyclist named Andrew had a cell phone (mine was in the car for some stupid reason!), and he rode up the hill so he could get reception and called 911. Then Kelly used the phone to "calmly" call Beth.

I was barely able to get out of the ditch assisted by a couple of people, but it was agony. My back and chest felt awful. I climbed into the front seat of the pickup truck (I wish I had the guy's number, I would call and thank him and assure him that it wasn't his fault I'd ended up in a ditch...) and waited for the ambulance.

Everyone showed up in minutes - police, a fire truck and an ambulance. I was put on a back board and strapped down. These are the most painful things I have ever been on - it really seemed to amplify the pain. And because of the concern of a spinal injury, they would not give me pain medication. The trip to the hospital in Milton and the 30-45 minutes waiting for an X-ray in a hallway by myself attached to that fucking board seemed like it took forever.

Finally, I was wheeled back into the triage room and allowed to be slid off the back board - there was no sign of a fracture to my spine, but they wanted me to get an MRI the next day just to be sure. Finally, I was given Tylenol 3s and an injection of an anti-inflammatory. Ross, Dad and Beth showed up with varying degrees of worry on their faces - I guess I looked even worse than I felt. Ross drove us home and I got to look at my bike for the first time - the front wheel was completely totaled, but remarkably, the rest of the bike was relatively unharmed. I couldn't say the same for my helmet, or my body...



This picture does not do my helmet justice... it was completely fucked:



Road rash!

Tour for Kids Video

I've just posted a video for my Tour for Kids 2008 fund raising on YouTube...

Two Robin Stories

Circle time at nursery school, Robbie was sitting with Selina's Mom, Linda. Whenever there is a duty parent (it's a co-op nursery school where parents participate in running the school and volunteering as duty parents), Robin seems to think that duty parent is there for her - so she engages them in non-stop conversation - yeah, she's a bit of a talker. So, Robin was chatting to this duty parent, Linda, about all the things going on in her life - Abby riding a two wheeler, Robin riding a one wheeler with no training wheels, her dinner plans for later on that evening etc. Linda kept trying to get her to be quiet but she kept talking. Finally, her teacher Mrs. Fisher, who had been talking to the rest of the class in the circle, told her "Robin, if you're not quiet, you're going to have to leave the circle!". Robin barely glanced at Mrs. Fisher, then looked back at Linda with a knowing look on her face, and said "Can you believe that?"

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Today in the car, Robin hit Abby first. Then, Abby hit Robin. Robin screamed. Abby did not. Beth assumed that Abby hit first and was scolding her when she realized that Robin had started it. When Beth got mad at Robin, she cried in a very wimpy voice "But Mommy, I'm only 3 and a half. I'm not even 4 yet. I'm only little!"