Your Weekend Ride Reports -- May 2/3
 

Friday, 1 May 2020 … 5.6 km walking
Saturday, 2 May 2020 … 5.8 km walking
Sunday, 3 May 2020 … 3.0 km walking

I left early this morning for my Sunday ride. It was a good thing because it was already hot making the last climb to my house . I road the ItalVega to Ventura and switched bikes to the Medici for the ride home. Thirty miles of pedaling bliss! 🚴🏼‍♂️

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...5b1789826d.gif

Crashed on 4-30. Front tire rolled off on a 12% descent at 30-35 mph. It was an off-camber turn, and I had a slow leak in the front tire, unknowingly. I countersteered and dove into the turn. Front end went down hard, and I slid down that 12% grade on my side for 3 1/2 seconds, until I came to a stop. Cuts and abrasions from head to foot on my left side. Ruined my new silver Diadora shoes from Italy.

Saved my collarbone by staying in the drops though. Happened so fast, there was no time to react anyway. Most painful, bloodiest crash I have ever had. I did manage to patch the tire, straighten out the bike and ride home unassisted, and have not accrued a dime in medical bills. :) Forced myself to ride the next day, I will be fine once all this road rash heals. Note that the animation is sped up slightly, I had trouble making one small enough to post here.

101 miles. My first century. Have ridden 80+ several times but never 100 till today.


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...50951eba2.jpeg

Damn. You got lucky there. Glad you made it out okay.

Congrats! I did I think my 16th century yesterday. The great feeling of finishing one never gets old. 🙂

Ouch! Glad you're ok, @Lemond1985

Dang! Glad it wasn't any worse. But you probably already know it's a good idea to watch for concussions. It's hard to spot the symptoms in ourselves so it's a good idea to discuss this stuff with family and friends in advance. Tell 'em to watch daily for symptoms and get the crash-ee to the ER pronto if any symptoms occur.

I usually point to Natasha Richardson's death as an example of how badly this stuff can go wrong when neglected. Her only warning signs were irritation and headache, but that would have tipped off anyone who knew what to watch for -- and the EMTs or paramedics who attended her should have taken her to the ER despite any hesitation.

I had a slow speed fall a few weeks ago, about 8 mph on ice -- it was late March, and apparently a puddle had some frozen stuff from patchy, scattered hail or sleet the night before. I think I was in the drops and went down like a sack of old cyclist. No immediate pain or re-injury to my shoulder and neck, but a week later my ribs began aching. That lasted about 3 weeks. No head impact.

But as we get older the brain shrinks and bounces around a bit more inside the skull. So it doesn't take a direct head impact to cause a concussion as we age. My mom had multiple concussions from falls without head impacts, which neurologists speculated may have contributed to her eventual dementia. She had terrible balance, worsened by a bad spine (combination of scoliosis and lordosis, which I have to a much lesser degree) and bum knee that she couldn't bend. So if she lost balance even slightly she'd plop down, usually on her butt. That happened so many times in her life it apparently added to the cumulative effect of multiple concussions.

Waked a couplafew miles Friday after a visit with the ophthalmologist. Thought I had a detached retina but it was posterior vitreous detachment, annoying but less serious. The "lightning flash" symptoms cleared up after a couple of days, but the huge floaters and overall haze and graininess will take a few weeks to clear. It's kinda distracting, especially at night, so I'm curtailing my usual late afternoon rides to be a bit shorter. And I end up flipping my helmet mirror out of the way because it's hard to tell the difference between actual movement in my mirror and floaters. I still have the handlebar-end mirror, which is out of the visual path where the worst floater is, so it's not distracting.

Anyway, did a couple of moderate effort rides this weekend, 32 miles Saturday, 27 miles Sunday. Our first really warm, borderline hot days, up to 90F Sunday. Didn't push too hard since I'm still acclimating. Seems to take longer as I get older, so I try to ride in the warmest part of the day starting in spring so I'm acclimated by July.

Somewhat erratic but mostly okay. Leg strength is definitely down from where it normally is at this point in the year, because my diet of hard intervals only really consists of group rides, which I haven't been doing.

Only two rides this last week, but the ride on Sunday was 106 miles long. Only around 3800' of elevation, but very slow from wind. The constant wind in spring is very annoying, but it's otherwise a stunning time of year.

https://i.imgur.com/WokRzrL.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/3Kv9Nmw.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/dOyh08g.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/X1AycRh.jpg

I've ironically been eating healthier under COVID than before, now that I'm relying entirely on home cooking, and I've actually lost nearly 10 pounds. In the middle of the century, I did a very hard effort up a 1000' hill. Accounting for the weight of that bike, it wasn't far off my best-ever performance. That was nice to see: even if I'm a bit weak at the moment, at least my climbing is holding up.

Seems like it's the time of year when dampness causes there to be slugs everywhere. Which is okay, they're polite and they stand still for the camera.

https://i.imgur.com/w46oqzj.jpg

I just wish they would avoid hanging out in the middle of a right-of-way.

Ouch!

Sounds like my kinda luck, I TOTALLY understand wanting to avoid the dreaded hospital visit!

I'd be on the ground crying like a sissy after something like that.

I've had the opposite happen, I can't say no to my wife's home cooking.

Now that she's gone back to work, I can resume my one meal a day routine. (10KG to lose, will take a few months)

Nah, the crash itself didn't hurt at all, compared to the healing. Been in agony every night trying to sleep, now the road rash is infected and throbbing painfully.

This about one minute after the crash, blood everywhere, but no real pain as of this point. You can see my shadow hunched over the bike trying to straighten it out. Rode home unassisted. :)


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...17eb0b4a62.png

The picture doesn't look that bad, I was imagining 3.5 seconds of raw flesh asphalt sanding would have been worse.

The healing does suck, especially sleep!

Good on ya, for getting back on the bike the next day.

I'm reminded of a slow leak I had on my front tire recently, (latex tube, 4-5 hours of use) Stans sealant to the rescue! (it now holds air for almost a week)

Hip, shoulder, arm, and the side of my head took most of the grinding. I have gotten pretty good at distributing crash energy evenly as I slide, so I did what I could. Thanks for the well wishes, I often forget how painful this sport can be. (ouch!)

Saturday night shenanigans in Shanghai.

Those are some great quality night videos. My Fly 12CE sure can't capture scenes that well at night. I assume you are using GoPro cameras?

I went out for extended evening rides Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday was kind of annoying. It seemed like every rude and dangerous cyclist (and a few cars) decided to go out at the same time. 38 miles total. Thursday was better and I got in 26 miles. Sunday I was back in the Ocala Nat Forest. Beautiful bike weather. Sunny, 60's and light wind. On the weird side...I was cruising on one of the more major roads and when up ahead I noticed something that looked like orange mist hanging over the road. I watched a truck go into it and create a big puff. I followed behind and it seemed like something had spill on the road. Some kind of fine powder. I did my best to get through it as quickly as possible. Probably not the best to breath in. Fortunately, did not last long. 42 miles total.

Low end sony, as50 I think. (1080P, 30FPS)

I'd like to upgrade to something with a 1" sensor, but the price/performance ratio isn't quite there yet.

I am telecommuting, but every day is like Saturday.

Is this what retirement will look like? If so, bring it on! :thumb:

Friday, May 1: 40 Km
Saturday, May 2: 59.60 Km
Sunday, May 3: 62 Km

Those are outside miles on my road bike.

Indoors, I am going for Zwift’s “unemployed” badge. :roflmao2:

Here in Maryland, we had 6 inches of rain in April, most of it seeming to come on the weekends. When it wasn't raining there were gale force winds. Only got a few outdoor rides in. My Zwift mileage has gone way up this year.

The first weekend in May was glorious - I got in my favorite hilly 45 mile road loop and it felt great. It almost felt like a normal weekend, other than much less traffic on the roads and no group rides to join!

Relive animation of the ride here.

I rode the same paved bike trail Saturday & Sunday. Saturday most ppl wore masks. Sunday it seemed like almost no one besides Wifey & I were wearing masks

Looks like it was the weekend for centuries, nice work everyone. Whether it's your first or your hundredth, always a sense of accomplishment. :thumb:

Did 105 on Sat and 102 on Sunday to close out my highest mileage week ever, 425 miles! Weather was absolutely perfect.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a3978383f6.jpg

Lemond1985, glad you're ok. I have some very similar scars from a crash last fall. :beer:

Absolutely!!

I've still got about 17 years to go, but I'm ready!