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June 22, 2009
crash & aftermath
As most of my readers are also friends of mine on Facebook, you probably know that my weekend did not go as planned. However, I thought I would give a few additional details on what happened and how things are now. So Saturday morning I was feeling good and I was super excited to race. I did my 500 meter pre-race swim and that was fine. Then I headed home and got my bicycle ready for an easy 45 minute ride. This makes me kind of upset because I had planned on riding in Boulder but I changed my plans to go with friends who wanted to do their workouts in Denver. No big deal, just one of those things I wish I could change in the past which as we all know is fruitless! Anyway I was riding down the street towards Wash Park so I could do my easy ride and on the way a car didn't stop or look when it was at a stop sign, so I slammed on my brakes and fell over. Luckily it did not hit me. That is the good news. The bad news is that I fell with pretty much all my momentum and body weight on my right hip. I do have some minor road rash on my right elbow and it is pretty sore especially if I whack it on something which I do occasionally as I am clumsy! Also, today the left side of my neck is sore and my whole body just feels kind of off. My hip is still pretty sore but it is actually surprisingly not as bad as it was on Saturday. Saturday evening I did go to urgent care because my family said it would be a good idea, which I agree was even though it will cost a lot of money due to my craptacular medical insurance. It is reassuring to know that I do not have a broken hip! Also the doctor said it was good to keep the blood flow going so he said I could spin on my trainer yesterday, which was GREAT news.
So Saturday was not my best day. After my crash, I rode more just to see how things felt. It hurt a lot when I had to go uphill and it hurt a TON when I stopped and started. Then I tried to run and lasted about a minute. It was really painful and clearly there was no way I could race. I am not racing to finish. I want to be the most awesome and walking the run of a race just doesn't do it for me. Also I just didn't want to be around it, it would be too upsettting. I think the fact that the crash happened just a day before my race made it really difficult for me emotionally because I was so ready to race. After my aborted workouts I got into bed and watched Scrubs and pretty much cried. I will admit I was a total mess. People kept calling me which was so nice but every time someone did I would burst into tears. Also my hip really hurt any time I got up so I would burst into tears when it hurt a lot. What a basket case!
Sunday morning I figured that swimming in a wetsuit wouldn't aggravate my hip which oddly felt better than it had on Saturday (I had thought that like most soreness it would be the worst the second day). So I went to Grant Ranch which is a local place for open water swimming and swam a lot. I swam 5000 meters according to their buoys but I think it was probably more than that because I suck at sighting when I can't draft. That was good, I really needed some endorphins. I also figured out during the swim that I think my wetsuit is too big, which is weird. I think I am just very compact maybe? However I did just spend some time on the phone with a girl from Xterra who thinks the XS would be too small. Well who knows. Anyway that was good although I could not stop myself from re-living my crash and thinking about the race.
After the swim I went and lifted because I had missed a lifting session due to my taper and I figured I might as well see how it went. It didn't cause any pain so that was good. Then I went to lunch with Matt and Michelle after insisting that I would go if they really wanted but I didn't want to talk about the race at all. I felt really bad because after a race it is all people want to talk about. But I knew if they did I would cry. Just seeing their race numbers on their arms and legs made me cry. What a mess. I also told myself I would not look at the race results but of course I totally did, and I must say that first of all my age group is CRAZY competitive and second of all I really wish I could have competed against those girls. The girl who won my age group won the whole race and she rode the bike 24 MPH. Last year I had the second fastest bike split in my age group by 3 seconds and I averaged 22. Wow, holy competitive age group! So that was depressing, I really think I could have mixed it up with them. Oh well.
After lunch I rode my trainer for a few hours. It was almost 90 degrees outside yesterday and I do not like to use A/C so it was SO HOT. I think I sweated out like 20 pounds of water. My clothes were so gross afterwards. It did not hurt at all even when I got out of the saddle to rest my woo-hoo so that was really encouraging. I wanted to go outside but I did not think that would be a good idea, just in case I had to make a quick move. However, today I think I will ride outside after I swim.
Anyway, immediately after my accident I started to worry about the rest of my season. Obviously now that I know I don't have a broken hip it should not be too bad. Lifetime Fitness is three weeks from this past Saturday and I think if I can run by this coming Saturday I will be in good shape. I am going to see my physical therapist on Friday just in case. Now my biggest issue is that I need another race! None of the local races will work schedule-wise, they are all within one week of Lifetime Fitness or Timberman. My high school BFF lives in San Diego so I am thinking maybe southern California. Anyone know of any good races this year? My timeframes are late July, early August, any time in September except the 19th or 20th, or early October. Let me know! I want an Olympic but I would do a sprint. My only criteria is that it needs 500+ participants.
So hopefully things will look up from here!
Posted by barb at June 22, 2009 3:19 PM
Comments
oooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh honey. i wondered what had caused the accident. how scary to worry that you had broken your hip. i'm so sorry you had such a rough weekend.
better things await you this summer! promise!
Posted by: Audrey at June 22, 2009 4:43 PM
So sad to read this-you deserve to cry all you want as that is so frustrating. What is up with people in this state who can't drive?!?! I am glad your hip isn't broken though, that's definitely good news.
If it makes you feel any better I too looked at the results yesterday and my jaw dropped to the floor. Where do they find these women? You would have cleaned up though, no doubt. Now you'll just have to clean up twice as much in your next race.
I am wishing you the speediest of recoveries!!!
Posted by: Katie at June 22, 2009 9:32 PM
Good luck with your healing. I'm glad to hear that you can still do some training, because this will help you maintain your excellent fitness. Thank goodness you did not break anything. It can't be easy now, but I think you'll come back stronger than ever.
Posted by: Alison at June 23, 2009 8:38 AM
Barb!! I was just going to email you to see how you were feeling...but checked your blog first just in case. :) Anyway - so sorry about missing the race but in the grand scheme of things I'm so, so happy to hear that you are okay and you are already able to spin on the bike and swim! EXCELLENT! In a few weeks time you won't even remember it happened. ;) Happy recovery and take it slow with the running. It's always the last one to come back...
Posted by: Beth at June 23, 2009 2:58 PM
At work, I realized something definitely went wrong. Sounds like it could have been worse, not that if helps how you felt this weekend. Glad you blogged about it, as I was wondering. Love the word "craptacular" if that makes you feel better. At least it made me laugh, but probably not you.
Good Luck!!!
Posted by: Steve at June 23, 2009 7:24 PM