On Recovery – Riot Down!

So as mentioned in the last post, we finished the 24 hour race on June 23^rd.  On the 25^th was the Tuesday night Kelso race series I have been doing.  And I attended still feeling a little tired and stiff from the 24 hour.  As I have mentioned before, the Kelso races are short sprinty races...3 laps of an approximately 8km route.  About an hour of all out, redlining effort; and this night was no different.  The only difference was my finish. 

The finish is a long speedy descent into a wide sweeping right hand curve of loose gravel interspersed with grass followed by about a 200metre sprint uphill to the finish line.  Usually I scrub speed coming down the hill in order to negotiate the curve, but on this occasion I had been hot on the tail of a couple of BicycleWorks jerseys (BicycleWorks is the LBS that is a major sponsor of this race series), and had planned to pass them (works perfect in my mind) on the sprint to the finish.

So I came into the descent and into the curve hot at about 55 km/h and ready to sprint.  I came into the curve wide to pass a lapped rider, caught some loose gravel and started to skid out, then hit some wet grass (it had just started raining) and BAM!! I was down.  Right shoulder and hip hit the ground first, then my head whiplashed into the gravel breaking my helmet; then a lengthy tumble of gravel, carbon, and Metis.  As I skidded to a stop on my Camelback, I picked up my visor which had skidded across the track, grabbed my bike to get to the finish. But something was jammed and the bike wouldn’t go.  So I picked it up and ran across the finish.  As it was I came in second in my category (just beating my friendly competition, Martin, by about a foot...that's 30cms for you youngsters...sorry Martin!). 

But it wasn’t until stopping after the finish that I realised I might be injured.  The shoulder, hip, and definitely the ribs  did not feel right.  Then waking up the next morning, and noticing the bruising, and the concussion like dopiness and headache, I realised I had better visit the doctor.  This is what the hip looked like at the time.

Which was better than my helmet.

After xrays couple of cracked ribs, everything else just bruised; no treatment required (other than ice and rest).  The head cleared up after a couple of days, then after 6 days off the bike slowly got back into it.  A trainer ride (thank you Sufferfest),

 

Actually, the trainer and Sufferfest videos haven't been getting much work with the usually good weather and race season, to the trainer was almost a welcome change.

 

 

 

To ease back in has included an easy CX ride, easy road ride, and a MTB on the road ride.  First real ride attempt will be today...a road ride with Fig.  The shoulder is still quite stiff, and ribs have a ways to go.  No MTB trail ride yet...the ribs wouldn’t handle another fall.

This is how the hip looks now...

 

 

 

 

The days off included mine and Lois’s wedding anniversary...

 

Yes, I am a luckier man today, even more than I was on the wedding day...partly because Lois didn't think like this...

 

 

Actually, the days off, and the anniversary all just happened to coincide with Ribfest...so ribs, beer, and no exercise, mean that I have put on about 5 lbs since the fall...so I’ve got some work to do...

However, the next big race isn't until August 3rd.

How will it go??  Stay posted!!