Another year ends. Another year begins.
Here I sit in my big leather chair, healing up after an ill-advised track on my last bicycle ride for 2023. I’d originally thought it was noting too serious, just some bumps and bruises that given my age were going to take a bit longer to heal.
This is not the same stretch of beach below as above. Below is the parking lot at Capo New Years Eve Morning and my crashed bicycle where it and I landed.
After accessing damage I determined I could continue and I did. Completing 50 more kilometers from this point. As I sit here three days post crash the colors are beginning to show on my left side. The shoulder and elbow were first. The left hip and quad second. So far nothing appearing on my back or ribs, but they are the really sore spots. Coughing or sneezing is very painful, but not like ribs are broken painful, so I’m thinking I’m OK there, just maybe tweaked the muscles that all need time to relax. Hot showers seem to help a lot in that.
Figuring out why I crashed was pretty easy given I knew when I went down what the problem was. My left foot would not come out of the pedal because of all the sand in the cleat and pedal. I had to dig sand out of the cleat twice to get it to click into the pedal after walking to where I could ride again. Of course the full reason I crashed is I was riding where I should have chosen not to ride. I did have choices. I had three other choices in fact. I could have stopped and turned around and ridden home, got in the car and driven to the start point. Or two, I could have chosen to not even walk the sand back at the beginning of Capo trail and taken either the sidewalk to DoHo or ridden Coast Highway. The crash was completely my fault for making a stupid choice. In fact the most stupid choice.
And that got me to thinking. I would never have made the same choice on my motorcycle. I thought about that more and came to the conclusion that I felt confident enough to ride the poor terrain because I had done so before many times over the last several years in vey similar conditions. I have over the past several months made the decision to pare down my motorcycling to graded gravel roads and two lane pavement at minimum. No more single track or old cow path two track riding. That in an effort to be safer and avoid unwanted stress on the motorcycle. I’d never thought about the bicycle in the same way. I suppose because a road bicycle on paved bike paths and roads with bike lanes or wide shoulders is pretty safe. But, my recent thoughts brought up discussions I’d had with folks I’d met who had chosen to only ride bike path routes or wide low speed bike lane routes. This mishap made that seem more understandable along with a few more incidents of close encounters with cars while riding bike lanes. My exploration further east has had me on bike paths and extremely lightly traveled streets to where I really began noticing how much more pleasant that riding was compared to the stress of riding with higher speed, denser traffic a few inches off my elbow.
I began writing this piece a few days post crash. I was feeling a good deal better. My hot showers and stretching and rest were showing steady improvement. Enough that I was figuring I’d be out walking the beach with my wife in the next day or so. I had played on the floor a bit with our grandson then made dinner. While standing in the kitchen making dinner, my back around the injured area began giving me more pain. I did’t really attribute this to the injury as standing for a long time tends to make the area around my rhombus stiff and sore. Once I got dinner into the oven, roast potatoes and chicken I laid down on the hard living room floor to stretch my back. This helped a little, but I still had plenty of stiffness and slightly increasing pain. I stretched and still had easy movement so figured just a combination of standing, playing with our grandson and the injury.
We turned in to bed later than usual after dinner and some TV. I woke the first time in the night around 12:30am feeling stiff. My back made a medium hard spasm at the injury area. The next time I woke and I went to move the spasm was hard enough that I could just get to the bathroom and back to bed. I woke about an hour later to a much larger spasm that was hard enough I couldn’t move at all without making it worse, or once subsided making another happen.
My wife called our doctor service and we had a video call with a clinician. She recommended calling 911 emergency for transport to the ER after witnessing a half dozen spasms and my pain in live video. The 911 call was made, firefighters and paramedics arrived and given the tiny space we live in none of their usual equipment would fit through the doors or up the stairs and down the hall to the bedroom. We did the one, two, three, move routine cold turkey getting me upright and supported standing. Then down the hallway and stairs to the morning chilled bed/stretcher/gurney on the sidewalk. A very bumpy ride along the heaved sidewalk to a bumpy ride in the ambulance to the ER. While chatting medical history, cycling and motorcycles and life. The firefighters and paramedics all seemed like people who would be fun to hang out with. Cheerful, professional and compassionate.
At the ER after some waiting in the hall, (busy place), I was moved from the transport tool to an ER bed. This in a tiny room barely large enough for the bed let alone anybody around it. One more one, two, three, move exercise in pain.
At this point it is about 5:30am. After evaluation and lots of sensors, I’m hooked up the vitals screen and softly beeping away happily. The pressure cuff that automatically went for my BP every few minutes would exert a huge amount of pressure. I was able to equate this to the pressure I felt from the spasms at about 75% of the spasm. I lost conscienceness after several pokes and prods to find get a blood sample. By this time I was dehydrated a good bit, having not drank much since about 9pm the night before.
A little after 8am, some nearly 5 hours post first phone call. I’ve had a CT scan and been given a valium and some water. The spasms come and go at a little lighter pressure. A while later I’d get a dose of morphine which took a little more of the edge off the spasms and pain. A few hours later a sandwich and a pill form pain med that really knocked the edge off the pain. I got a late lunch an hour or so after that.
My insurance company decided to leave me here at this hospital since they didn’t have any open trauma beds. While I waited on a bed to open up some place I was moved once to a larger room still in ER but on the far side. This is a big ER.
Everyone I interfaced with or even made eye contact with during my time at the hospital was cheerful, professional and compassionate. From people cleaning to administrators in suits rushing into the office in the early morning chill. From all the noises, announcements, alarms and people rushing, around in a practiced chaotic ballet, it was very evident this was a very busy and crowded place that was well used to this scale. In spite of all that each person who helped me took the time to be personable and talk me and my wife through what was going on, their concerns and how they were addressing it all and what the plan was and why. When my brain decided it had, had enough of the pokes and seizing back and decided to shut off, sending my heart rate crashing and exciting the alarms on my little monitor box. The people who quickly arrived to help the attending ER nurse were all cheery and performing as if they were just grabbing a quick morning coffee. I never felt things out of control. For such a painful, disruptive and a bit scary experience it was in that way enjoyable. And the performance and attitudes of everyone at the hospital really made this experience much less of a trauma to my psyche than it might have been otherwise.
Now, the end result of the scans were I had two broken ribs at #’s 9 and 10, non-displaced and a bruised lung. The two big concerns were my history of adverse reactions to pain medications and blood clotting as a result of the bruised lung, thanks to not breathing deeply enough to maintain clear lungs. On those concerns I was admitted to the hospital, hence the waiting. A day later I was back at home with a prescription for some big pain meds. I never had to use the pain meds. I had plenty of pain, but the spasms were gone and those were the killer pain.
I caught a cold a day after leaving the hospital, so coughing and sneezing was very painful, but again the spasms did not return. I kept myself over hydrated if anything. Nearly constantly sipping water and visiting the bathroom, then refilling the water cup and repeating the cycle. I was able to sleep on my right side most of the night with an increase in sleep per night
I was able to repair the Rapha jacket I was wearing when I fell using some adhesive patch from REI.
I used painters tape on the backside to position the tears in the fabric before applying the patch on the outside.
My recovery progressed as the cold I’d caught stabilized. The cold wearing off, my getting more sleep and coughing and sneezing not being quite as painful as they had been at first. All that felt like real recovery progress. I was able to sleep on my right side more and more. Sleeping flat on my back was still something tat was painful and would wake me up in the night when I’d roll onto my back from my right.
The followup visit to my insurance company/ healthcare provider doctor went well. I did not have to undergo an additional CT scan. Saving me more exposure to radiation. Though I will get a chest x-ray mid February. That will be about 7 weeks post crash.
At the end of January I am recovering. It isn’t fast. But, it is without complications, but not without frustration. I found if I exerted myself to much more than preparing dinner my back and ribs would give me enough pain to require me to take some extra strength Tylenol. Just one 500mg capsule was enough to allow me to relax into sleep. Trying to do any very light garage work, to organize the shop so I could get the bike back on the Wahoo KickR Snap. Too much lifting really aggravates the ribs.
The beginning of week four and finally I’m feeling quite like things are healing up enough that if I feel this good tomorrow, I’ll get the bike down off the hooks, clean it up and begin working on setting the shop up for indoor smart trainer riding. Last night was nearly pain-free. Not a huge amount of sleep, my waking was down to my brain running at full throttle rather than rib and body pains.
Day 26 of recovery, I lifted the bike down off the hooks and washed the grit and grime off of it. The electronics are on chargers and I feel a short cafe’ ride coming on this warm weekend. I can feel the ribs, but I’m not hurting. I’ll do a reorganizing of the garage this weekend as well and get that smart trainer set up. We are predicted another atmospheric river storm by mid-week. I’ll play indoors.
I gave up on Kinomap, and switched to Zwift. The first Zwift ride went well. But, it did not auto upload to Strava either. When checking the setting on the web site, both Kinomap and Zwift eventually appeared, so these should be working now. I figure to stay on the trainer until I don’t have too much pain at my ribs during and after a session. Right now I get a good bit of pain. Not so much I need anything, but it is very tender. And feels almost on the edge of a spasm. I’m keeping my workout around 30 minutes and trying for flatter more spinning rides. One thing I noticed when I first used the smart trainer back during the shutdown was there is no coasting. I have to be riding all the time. I’ve learned I need to back off a notch or two though to keep my heart rate down. This first Zwift ride I didn’t do that. I managed 33 minutes at 144bpm. Sitting here I’m less than half that, so not too hard an effort for me. I’m looking forward to the performance bump I experienced last time I trained indoors and went back to real riding outside.
Conclusions: I suppose the best I can conclude from my experience is first I need to not do this anymore. Very obvious I know. The more complete statement would be I need to make better choices. I had several choices and I need to take a much wider view and reflect carefully and thoughtfully on the several options in any future situations similar to what led to this fall and take the better path. Secondly I suppose I can add that to my goals for the year as rather than resolutions these are goals. My other related goals are to drop weight, 10kg minimum, ride 10,000km and at least one 100 mile self supported century this year.
I have not set a goal of buying a new bicycle because I’m not sure I’m ever going to need to. Want? Sure, I want a new bicycle, but I don’t need one. The current 14 year old Specialized Roubaix, Expert is still perfectly functional and well beyond my abilities to exploit any flaws it may have. 10-speed rear by two up front is plenty for my needs. I am at a loss to figure out how much two more gears out back, sandwiched between the existing sizes would ever buy me. A slightly larger bottom gear would be nice at times. Those big steep climbs on the Olympic course or the long steep slog up Pacific Island. I am certain that riding either climb slightly easier in a slightly lower gear is not in any way worth $10,000 to me. Ten grand puts my wife and I in Italy for two weeks. So, yeah a new bike however fun that sounds has slipped quite far down the priority list.
I got the garage rearranged and set up the smart trainer. Wahoo Fitness KickR Snap. With Kinomaps. Still fiddling with it all to get it to work.
The first half hour session didn’t go well, but it went. I was never able to share to Strava and the HR monitor battery died just as I began. Of course the Polar HR monitor requires a 2025 battery. The old Wahoo TickR that died used 2032, like the Garmin powermeter pedals. I need to buy more of each anyway.
Second ride. I could not get Kinomap to upload to Strava. I gave up. had the file emailed to myself, then unzipped the file and manually loaded it to Strava. I canceled my subscription Kinomap. There is no reason to continue the fight. I’ll go join the rest of the planet on Zwift. I got about a half hour or so of training in anyway. I can probably increase to around 45 minutes. I’m not ready for an hour yet. It turns out a CR 2032 battery will fit in the Polar H10 heart rate monitor.
My last day of January, I did the second Zwift ride. Auto uploaded to Strava perfectly. Apple Health still records segment using overall totals so I get a big number. I’m still sorting that. I think I got the AppleFitness app connection figured out. But, we’ll see come Friday. I might get a ride in on Thursday evening, I’m not sure yet how things will go.
To summarize, I want to ride 10,000km outside for the 2024 year, I want to ride at least one self-supported 100 mile century in a single day. I want to drop at least 10kg, or about 22 pounds. My ultimate goal is to get back down to 152 pounds. For 2024, I’ll be satisfied to drop to the lower 160’s. That will take will power, diet changes and very important to me getting into the habit of regular bicycle rides. I do not intend to ride as if I’m working out, but I do intend to work hard enough to burn around 1,000 calories each ride. I also want to skew my diet to more plant-based items and more closely control when I eat.
I think it is pretty easy for me to eliminate the junk from my diet. I’ve been able to do it in the past, it just takes turning away from that option and ultimately not having junk available at home as well as having healthy options readily at hand. Yes, this year I’m going to be adding eating habits into my monthly summaries of my cycling and I’ll track my weight here as well on Strava through my health apps.
Totals for the month:
Indoor Distance: 53.5km
Indoor Climbing: 436m
Wahoo KICKR Snap Time: 2 hours
Weight: 173.5lbs – Not too bad for a month of near total inactivity.
Along The Way 