I was out riding with the OBC June 28 on a century-ish effort to Dunvegan when suddenly I found myself on the deck, looking over my bike, putting the steering tube cap back on and checking the drive train to make sure it was still bikeable.
I never heard what happened but apparently I went over and was out of it for an agonizingly long time. From the wound pattern I’m guessing I went over to the right. But that’s about all I know.
I dusted myself off, put my bike back together, rode back and forth a bit to make sure it was rideable and then continued riding. I think the ride leaders were a little worried about me. But they checked my pupils, asked me all those concussion questions which I aced — you know, just like Donald Trump — and so I decided to keep riding.
They had called the paramedics, who came by, slowed down and kept going. I guess they decided we were the wrong group of cyclists. Apparently there was another incident of a cyclist going down where they were needed.
I had a scuff on my helmet, minor road rash on shoulder, hip, knee and elbow. I expect my hip hit hardest as there’s a really deep bruise there which continues to be sensitive as of typing.
But the crown jewel of my injuries was my ribs on my right side. A non-displaced rib fracture, or intercostal muscle tear. I think. Adrenaline is an amazing thing. I’m pretty sure it got me home. I figured I might be off for a day. I’ve done damage to my ribs a bunch of times so I figured that there’d be no right side sleeping but apart from that I expected to be good to go. I was mostly pissed that I’d put a hole in a favourite pair of bib shorts.
After the requisite rest day Monday I decided to see if the rib injury would bother me on the bike. The answer, I discovered, was an emphatic yes. Like gasping in pain every two minutes when some act of shifting balance on the bike caused my core muscles to engage.
What followed was about five days where I didn’t ride at all. That’s the longest stretch of bike free days I’ve suffered in I would guess at least ten years.
As more actions became do-able without pain, I decided to try biking again. I picked what I thought was an easy route. But there was this one ramp where you have really give it to get up the path from the Ottawa River to the SGEC where I felt every single strand of newly-knitted muscle give way.
And thereafter followed another series of no-biking days.
It is a rib injury unlike any I’ve experienced. Normally the pain from acute injuries is either present or not. As it heals it subsides. But this pain appears over the course of a bike ride. Like when the muscles get some fatigue they start to hurt, but only when engaged in certain actions — riding one-handed, unclipping and putting a foot down, dismounting. And then it goes away. So that by bed time, I can lie down and turn over without yelping or contorting myself to avoid engaging my rib muscles. It just feels like garden variety muscular stiffness, like you might experience from over-exertion.
I feel like it’s more or less a steady arc toward recovery so I’ve been trying to find shorter routes with continuous riding and without any sharp inclines. It’s hard in this city if you also care about avoiding high traffic roads.
Some days are better than others and I keep hoping for signs of improvement. How long can I ride before I start to feel it? Can I grab my water bottle or signal a turn? My final exam will be ‘Can I pedal hard out of the saddle’. My current limit is one revolution or less.
I have an appointment with my health centre next week to ensure that it’s not something else.
The only good news to come out of this — apart from the fact that it wasn’t worse — is new kit. Most of what I’ve read says that if you whack your helmeted head on the road you should replace your helmet. Which I did. WIth the same thing as I had before but version 2.0! Even better, I reached out to Rapha, the makers of my now-ruined shorts to see about their repair service. Time was when they would — for free — repair any of their kit that was damaged in a crash. They don’t do that for Canadian customers any more but they will send you a discount code for the amount you paid for the damaged kit. Which they did. I plan to celebrate my return to fitness with a new kit day. Be excited for me.