It finally happened. I fell while clipped into my bike pedals. I’ve been using the clips for two years now and have constantly been told that falling in clipless pedal is inevitable, that everyone falls, get it out of the way and you won’t fear the clips. Well, I knew since I had managed to avoid it for so long that when I did fall, it would be spectacular. Monumental. Embarrasing to the nth degree.
And yes, yes it was.
Because what was spectacular about it was that I ended up bruised and bloody. What was monumental about it was that it was 7 days out from my second half Ironman. And what was embarrassing was that like a true badass athlete, I was lying on the ground, buried by my bike, unable to move or get up, and I cried.
There’s no crying in baseball – I mean triathlon!
So as for my training recap (which is being posted on a Tuesday again – what’s with Tuesdays? Oh yeah, I was so tired Sunday evening I fell asleep putting my youngest to bed rather than writing up a training recap!), here’s a rundown:
I’m not sure I ever recapped the weekend prior to this one. I won’t dwell on it, I’ll just say life + kids + time = trainer ride for my long bike ride. And I tried to make it a brick but this 5.5 year old was too heavy and I only ran a mile.
Tuesday – In the evening, I took a CPR/First Aid course to finish my RRCA running coach certification. A lot of the course was online first, which took way longer than I expected but it was really good info to have. And the in-person course was useful.
When I got home, I did a lovely late night trainer ride. I got off at 45 minutes instead of 1 hour since it reached the time when I turn into a pumpkin while exercising: 10:30pm. I had an alarm set for 4:45am for track, I knew I’d have to get off the bike and ready for bed.
Wednesday – Track time! I wrote about track in my National Running Day post on Wednesday with a photo. In the evening, we took my au pair out for dinner for her birthday. All three kids were excellent at the restaurant, and I was feeling relaxed!
Thursday – Nope, nothing happened training-wise. I worked all day through an evening rehearsal event, and when I finally got home it was late, I was hungry and I was tired.
Friday – My first day at Masters Swimming for the summer session! We moved outside and midway through I learned that the pool is 25 meters instead of 25 yards, and now I know more about how to adjust Garmin data than I did before! I was so glad to get that workout in since the rest of the day was work, then a school event in the evening with two of the kids. Then prepping for our yard sale.
Saturday – I worked my tail off getting ready for the yard sale, and then running the thing was fairly exhausting.
After it was over I needed a little downtime, but didn’t get much. I had to get out for my 8-mile run before Jon and the kids needed to leave for the Washington Spirit (women’s pro soccer) game.
During my run, disaster struck! I was running on a busy road with tons of cars, and I suddenly really needed the bathroom. Like, NOW.
Emergency alert!
I backtracked a couple miles, barely making it to a McDonalds.
All of that took so long I only got in 7.11 miles instead of 8, then I tried to convince my youngest to go out in the stroller with me to finish up the run once the others left for the game, but he decided to “act 3” and didn’t do anything I said. Ah, toddlers.
Sunday – I’m lucky to have awesome friends and an awesome dad. I really didn’t want another long bike ride fail where I end up on my trainer for hours on such a gorgeous day. My friend and LUNA Chix teammate Julie met me and my dad for a 50-mile bike ride on the W&OD trail.
We rode just about 50 miles on the W&OD Trail in Virginia, and as I mentioned before I ended up bruised and bloody.
The details of that fall:
The trail has a lot of stop signs where it crosses the street. Some of these are busier with cars than others. I actually had a stoplight at one point and when I got going again, I saw Julie and my dad cruising along the path ahead. I dropped down into my aerobars, not realizing there was a stop sign RIGHT AWAY after the light. My dad made it through but then the cars stopped had a green light and I saw vans and cars starting to head into the intersection. I unclipped my left foot, and just didn’t get my right unclipped and fell right over.
My first thought, when I was on the ground unable to get up, buried by my bike? “Oh no, I’ve seriously injured myself for Eagleman!” My second? Is my bike okay? My third? Wahhhhh.
But I got cleaned up, back on the bike, and rode 30 more miles after that. I was a little skittish at the intersections from then on, but it was great to practice my fueling and get used to my new bike. It was my first ride since a bike fit and it felt SO different! In a good way.
Monday – I woke up to a pretty awesome feeling leg and knee, so I went to Masters Swimming. I’m paying for one day a week this summer, so I figured Monday is my day this week. It felt great to be swimming on a beautiful morning outside in the pool with some really great ladies. Backstroke started to bother my leg, and the coach told me to take it easy. I ended up splitting a lane with one person for the second half of the practice and did things at my own pace. 2050 meters for a great Monday morning!
So now it’s Tuesday! I will get on my trainer tonight if the swelling and bruising on my leg isn’t too bad.
Have you ever had a biking or running fall and injured yourself?
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