Lucky to not be a vegetable, or dead...
I wanted to get out early to do my ride before it got too hot, and I had to wait until the light rain stopped before heading out the door. Only 3 - 4 minutes into my ride, I decided to take a different route to get out of our housing development, which I didn't take often but thought would be safer.
Man, was I wrong!
As I was riding, I came across a four-way stop sign and was going to ride through it. At the last minute, I realized that a large black Denali was starting to drive through. Because I wasn't following the rules of the road or paying attention, it looked like I was going to hit the SUV or it was going to hit me.
I put on the brakes and turned my wheel to serve out of the way. Because the road was wet from the rain, my tire slipped, and I fell over with the left side of my head hitting the ground first. After my head landed, my shoulder and hip followed. It happened so fast that my hands didn't even come off the handlebars. Which was a blessing; otherwise, I would have probably broken a risk or collarbone.
As I was lying on my side on the ground, all I could think about was how hard my head hit the ground and that the helmet did a great job. Had I not had a helmet on, there is no doubt I would have cracked my skull open. I hit the ground HARD.
The guy in the SUV jumped out of his vehicle with a worried look on his face. I'm sure it didn't look pretty with a 240-lb man hitting the ground hard on the side of his head.
I got up quickly and was a little dazed. I wasn't concussion dazed, I know what that feels like, just dazed and the left side of my face felt like it had a head slight head ache. I was a little disoriented, and other than the head hitting hard, all I had was a scrapped elbow, and my chain came off.
The guy asked me if I was okay, and I must have looked a little confused. Once I realized I was okay, I was thinking about whether I should go home or finish my ride. I decided to continue my ride because I saw no value in going home.
Surprisingly, the ride was a good one. I averaged 23 kph, 1 kph faster than my previous ride, and I didn't have acute neck pain. The neck wasn't perfect, but it wasn't acute.
After the ride, I looked at my helmet to see if there was any damage. There was. I saw a crack created on the foam and shell from the fall. It definitely saved my head from getting cracked open at a minimum and maybe being a human vegetable or dead at worst.
As the day went on, my shoulder started to get sore. By the end of the day, I couldn't lift 2 lbs without being in pain. I started taking Advil and did some quick Google searches about shoulder pain from a cycling fall. depending on the severity, it could take 2 - 6 weeks to heal, and it was so painful I thought maybe I fractured a bone.
All I could think about was that I was off to a strong start, and now this could be the end of my training for a while, and if that's the case, the chances of me being fit enough to finish would be low. I tried to stay positive, telling myself I could still stick to my diet in the meantime.
After taking Advil, I started feeling a little better.
According to my training program, I would do a 30-minute run today. I didn't think it would happen, but by 9 p.m., I felt my shoulder might be able to hold up, so I decided to go for a run, and it did hold up. However, there was lots of walking, as the session was to have me keeping my heart rate under 132 bpm. With the heat at 97 F, I couldn't keep it under 132 bpm without a great deal of walking.
The only issue on the run was that my left lower leg under my calf was tight throughout. I was very careful not to push too hard, as I've done so and become injured, which wouldn't allow me to run for weeks. I'm so motivated to do all I can to avoid getting injured so that I can't train.
Hopefully, my shoulder will feel better tomorrow. The last thing I need is to be on the injury list and unable to train.
Run - 32:22 - 3.63 km - 8:58 per km
Bike - 1:03:41 - 24.51 km / avg 23.1 km/h
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