I missed the line and went down HARD

I've been a little out of action for a couple of days due to a little fall on my commute to work last Wednesday. We had a nice midwinter thaw over the weekend and it was around 34 deg. when I left for work at 5AM on February 11th, my birthday. As I came down the final 14% grade into High Bridge to catch the train I saw that I had a car WAY behind me so instead of slowing way down for the 10mph turn, I took it a little faster than normal and chose a beautiful line that gently swerved into the center of the lane before cutting into the shoulder to make the turn. What I failed to remember was that I was still on my Studded Nokians and as I banked over my fixie with the 12" clearance and 172.5 cranks, the I came off of the studds and the back end quickly fell out from under me. The last I remember was realizing I couldn't revover the bike and going down on my back. I vaguely recall the driver of the car that was behind me stopping to see if I was ok, and another driver from the other direction asking if they should call me an ablulance - to which my reply was "I think I'm ok and besides I DON'T need anyone to tell me why I hurt so much." I picked myself up and rode the last couple of blocks to the train where I folded up the bike and got on the train. It is amazing how nothing really hurt too much immediately after the fall. As I sat on the train for the hour ride to my next leg of bikeing I realized that I was bleeding a little from my cut on my hand (a superficial polyester burn from the inside of my gloves, and although my tights weren't ripped, I must of had a couple of "rug burns" on my knee, as well.



The ride from Westfield to Rahway was a little slower than usual and although my muscles hurt, I could still grip the handlebars so everything must have been ok - for the time being. The warm shower at work felt good, and I appeared to have full motion of my arm but it was beginning to hurt a lot to raise my arm and pulled it back. I noticed that I could still breath deeply so I figured the ribs must be ok, as well. However by mid afternoon, it was starting to hurt to breath deeply and it felt as if I must have pulled a lat muscle or something.



The commute home was slow and painful but I made it back ok on the bike/train/bike and even though it was my birthday, managed to get into bed with a hot pad on my shoulder as soon as I got home that evening at 7PM. I found that I could sleep ok on my back and by morning I was stiff, but still able to ride into work. It hurt more the second day than the first so I take it as a good sign that most of my injuries are to the muscles and not to the bones. Friday was also painful riding to work. I managed to straighten out some pieces of bone in my collarbone during the day and once I massaged the parts into place, it didn't hurt so much. (note to self, try to avoid moving arm to the poit that this pice pops back out.) I missed my weekend rides. The pain is more localized on Monday but the commute wasn't all that painful, as long as I didn't move too quickly. It still hurts, but hopefuly with time things will get better. The forecast doesn't call for too bad of weather for at least a week so I hope to make it through until I need to do some more technical riding. Fortuantly I got in my February Brevet the Saturday before so I'm also looking to see if I can continue my daily commute and be able to ride a 200K in scheduled for three weeks from now.

Now about the bike: Although I'll need to purchase a new helmet (the Giro Transit sacrificed itself to protect my noggin), the purple beast survived the laydown with hardly a scratch. One wouldn't know that either of us had the nasty fall if one didn't notice how slow I'm riding.