Falling sucks. It can be embarrassing, distracting, and most importantly, painful. I would like to say I’m writing about it because I rode a technically challenging line on my mountain bike and just didn’t quite get it right, resulting in a spectacular spill. But no, I fell while running on perfectly flat pavement in my cycling shoes.
The stiff plastic soles of road cycling shoes are not meant for running, or even a light jog.
This was a stupid thing to do, but I was in a hurry and did it anyway. As could be expected, it wasn’t the running that caused the fall, but the attempted stop, which was successful in that I did stop and not so successful in that my legs flew out from under me and my ass hit the ground.
It wasn’t too painful at the time (last Sunday), but as the week went on, my back became stiffer and stiffer. By Friday I opted to drive to work instead of doing my usual bike commute. It was tough to decide which might be worse: the traffic or the lower back pain. It took me 53 minutes to drive 12 kms and I’d rate my back pain at around a 7 out of 10, so I think it’s a toss up.
To deal with this new, hopefully brief, setback in my training, I have a massage appointment for Wedensday, and today I bought an electric heating pad. It is my new best friend. Its soothing heat is working away as I type right now. In conjunction with gentle stretching, I hope my recovery will be speedy.
A fully functioning body is especially important right now as I had my blood lactate assessment consult yesterday morning and I officially have a plan in place with numbers to back it up. I’ll be posting something in the next couple days about the results and the plan. I know, I’m an awful tease, but I’m tired and cranky and no one at work wants me that way tomorrow, so I’m going to get a decent night’s sleep instead of writing past my bedtime again.
I'm gonna train this time 