Thoughts on crashing/riding in the rain/training in general etc
Those of you on FB likely know that I managed to crash yesterday am. Was out riding in the cold pouring rain with fellow ENer Kevin Lanahan. 30 or so miles into the ride. About 5 minutes after we stopped at a Stewarts to warmup/use the bathroom/have a cup of coffee/buy new gloves etc. I took a right turn going apparently way too fast. Entered the 90 degree falling away turn at 28 mph and was down to 23 when I lost the back wheel. Stupid and dangerous. Hit on the basebar and my right hip followed by my shoulder and the side of my head. Other than some paint on the basebar the bike is perfect as it did not really even hit the ground.
I popped up quick, and took stock. I knew I would have some bruised and road rash but all seemed well. I did not realize I hit my head at all and would have sworn I did not. Rather than risking tightening up I got on the bike and road home the luckily mostly down hill/down wind 18 miles. Looking at the power file it was less than 2 minutes from going down to starting again. Kevin was convinced I was nuts getting back on and riding away so quick. Was glad to have him with me.
By the time I got home I was feeling optimistic. Shoulder felt like someone took a bat to it and I know I was going to have a nasty bruise on my hip but felt great all things considered. Warm shower felt great. Totally not crash related but it took 20 minutes under hot water to get the feeling in my feet back. Road rash is not that bad as the same conditions that caused the wheel to slide let me slide and I had bibs, knee warmers, tights, jersey, arm warmers, jacket and gloves on. Having a hat on under the helmet likely did not hurt either.
When I got around to looking at my helmet it made me sick to my stomach. Cracked in several places. The paint and the straps were the only things holding it together. I could easily pull it apart if I wanted to. To be better safe than sorry I decided a trip to the doc was in order. No broken bones or concussion. Still glad I went to get checked for piece of mind.
Waking up this morning I felt like I had been hit by a truck. Everything is sore and hurts. For sure a bump on the side of the head. Sucks but feel very fortunate. All things considered I can not think of any circumstances of crashing on a road bike where I would be less hurt than this. Certainly could be a million times worse.
I remember reading the post on Friday to the tune of "rain forecast for tomorrow what should I do" and my thoughts were along the lines of it rains on race day so you might as well ride regardless. The emails between Kevin and I were similar, "6 rain or shine and be ready to suffer". Naturally my wife suggested that I was an idiot for planning to ride in the cold rain and suggested the trainer or later in the day or even on mothers day. I wanted to get it in as I am racing next weekend and figured I needed time in the saddle on the new bike. When we started it was raining fairly hard and about 50 degrees. In hindsight should I have not gone, maybe. Should I have not been so over confident and slowed down more taking that turn, absolutely.
Not really sure what the take away is other than to be careful out there. This was the first time I have ever crashed a road/tri bike since I have been training racing EVER. Have good handling skills from racing bmx/mtn bikes back in the day and never thought that a spill would be total operator error.
Got a shiny new helmet although I will not be using it for a few days as the trainer will be fine until my shoulder and hip feel better. Hope to be able to run in a couple of days and be back in the pool soon.
Hope to pay a bit more attention and be smarter in the future and will continue to count my blessings...
Comments
I hope you heal up soon!
Glad you're not too bad Rest up!
Vince
Vince
Once again, glad you're OK Chris.
I'm going on 7 years - no crash. Hope my luck holds for a while.
Clearly, Chris, you have well-developed falling skills, from somewhere in your athletic past.
My father, who grew up in eastern Montana (think Dakota winters) told me when I was learning to drive: "When you're driving on ice, you can go as fast as you want - as long as you don't have to turn or slow down!" Good advice for any slippery surface.
Chris,
Glad to hear you are okay. If you were that cold, 20 minutes shower to warm up, this might have contributed to the crash. Heal up.
I know that I will ride in the rain and actually like to ensure that I get out at least 2-3 times a year to deal with the handling. The key for me is to start slow and find out where/how much speed I can or am able to carry through the corners.
I also relate this to the motor bike that I always took it easier at the beginning of the season. As I got more comfortable the speed would increase a little over the season until it snowed then I would start over.
As for falling I used to ride my mountain bike all winter (high school and university) and came to the realization that I would be going down at least once every winter. Of course falling in the snow and ice is much better than pavement. I'm still not looking forward to that one on a tri/road bike.
Gordon
Don't be too hard on yourself. On a nice sunny day, you might have missed some sand and gone down as badly. As with all of life, you just never know. But taking the corners easier in the rain--you learned that and won't make the same mistake a gain. Make sure to feather the brakes multiple times before needing to slow or stop to dry things off to get more reliable braking.
I've ridden in the rain lots of times. The worst was October before IMFL--cold rain, main road, flat tire, semis splashing water on me like Niagara. That was it. Ya know, riding in the rain just isn't fun. So like Ben and Jerry say, why do it? There's enough in my life that challenges me and makes me tougher. Riding in the rain--been there, done that, learned all l've needed to. Now I'll pass.
Glad you're okay. I looked at my helmet last weekend and have several cracks go all the way through the helmet and probably 15 cracks total. Its crazy to think would have happened without the brain bucket.
I told ya Trent's Training Plain Hurts!
Take care of yourself.
Chris,
Glad you're ok. Sometimes it's unavaoidable, regardless of the weather. Rest up and let your body heal.
Dave
WHAT IN THE HECK HAVE I STARTED!!! Glad to here you OK, but as Linda said you just take these things to mind and heart and use them for knowledge later on. I ride rain or shine too but just know the corners and certain roads now that i ride that have the loose gravel to be more careful and don't worry so much about the power ave. going down on the cp.
Just remember now you are ready in a week or so for a 5K pr
.
So I am not sure what the moral of the story is but I do this for fun. I am not very confident on the roads in bad conditions. I am slow. I am a chick. I don't like riding in the rain and when it is cold and now when it is windy. If it is that bad on race day then oh well, maybe I don't make it, but I am ok with that. I don't do this for a living. I am the bread winner of my family. If I get injured, we will have big problems.
I guess for me I will take away from the experience that I shouldn't let people get in my head about being a wimp and not riding in bad weather. I have nothing to prove to anyone. I am an ironman.
That's a tremendous post, Lesley. You are right on, IMO.It's so easy to do "the stick" smack down, wimp talk. What's harder is not doing it.
Glad you're OK too. And, indeed, there is nothing to prove to anyone.
FWIW, I bagged a race yesterday because it was raining. I had a local score to settle, too.
As much as I wanted to show up and throw down, I didn't want to take a chance in the rain. Went to Ironman 2 with my son instead.
However, the day a car turned into me and forced me to crash, it was dry and sunny. You just never know.
And, I didn't ride this morning because I was a wimp.
It was just too damn windy and cold. Much better day to run.
Dave
I've done all kinds of road and off-road rides in the rain and have felt confident and careful about them. But now that I'm getting older (and see just how expensive disability insurance is!), I'm done with riding on the road in the rain. If it rains on race day, then I know I can ride it. But for training, I don't think it's worth the risk. Your ability to see and stop is compromised. More importantly, people driving cars ability to see you and stop is compromised.
My solution: Put clip-on aerobars on my cyclocross bike and ride the trails. It's not exactly the same position as my tri-bike and there's no PM, but it's alot safer.
ugh. sorry to hear about the crash, Chris. Glad your okay!!
I hate to think "it's only a matter of time" but more and more it seems like it's true when talking to fellow cyclists/tri-peeps. knock on wood it's been 6 years since my last crash. Got run off the road into a ditch by a truck pulling a boat, busted my front wheel in half and got launched into someone's front yard. haven't had the dirt/rain crash though I have to admit. I've certainly slowed down in the rain after Dave's crash in Placid last year.
I'm glad you escaped major injury. How's the bike?
Thanks for all the kind wishes. Funny thing about the riding in the rain thing is that I have done it tons of times, tons on race day as well. I have often thought that I was "due" to crash but was kinda sorta hoping it never happened. One of the main reasons I stopped mountain biking is that trees and rocks really hurt and seemed like mountain bike rides often ended with broken bike parts and someone in the ER. Course that was before suspension and body armor which I hear are really handy to have.
Also the fact that it was only the 4th time I have been on that bike likely did not help much. It handles different than my Kuota did [much steeper] and is night and day from the road bike.
@Al - I do have a lot of experience falling, mostly from growing up ski racing, some from making foolish low turns sky diving. In the spirit of full disclosure, I also have a decent history of horrific bike crashes, likely have had more than a 100 stitches in my face alone. One side of my chin is actually smaller than the other from grinding it down on the road. Luckily most of that happened when I was a kid. Things hurt much more now that I am "old".
On the positive side of things my new helmet matches the new bike wonderfully and I finally have the excuse to buy the zipp bars I wanted. Also, American Zofingen has no swimming...
Chris, so glad you're okay. Really take your time coming back from those soft tissue bruises. Warm, wet compresses always help me a lot.