Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Too Tough To Die

Morning weigh-in: 166.5#, 7.5% BF
 
Wild ride last night. Me, Joe C, Greg and Joe G hammering out a road training ride. A somewhat different set of fools but it was the the typical "Tuesday night follies," until... Joe G had a mechanical problem with his rear wheel, decided to keep riding anyway, and of course the inevitable happened: speeding along in the pack at better than 25 mph, he stood up to sprint and his chain slipped. He went flying over the bars and got slammed into the road -- wham! Sliding and tumbling, he smacked the back of his head hard enough to break his helmet, ripped his shorts, and got some nasty "road rash" abrasions on his butt and shoulder before rolling into the roadside brush.
 
I was a little behind when it happened and was the first one to get there: he was already sitting up, conscious but a little dazed. We were really worried for a few minutes, he could have had anything from broken legs to brain damage; he got up (still woozy), and we inventoried his injuries -- except for the whacked head, he got off easy, and after a few minutes he was feeling a little better & even said he was OK to keep riding...
 
Long story short: we finished the ride, mellow at first but with gradually increasing pace as it became apparent that Joe wasn't seriously hurt. Our final distance was like 32 miles, with an 18 mph average. I'll say this, he's tougher than me -- I would have definitely bagged the rest of the ride, or at the very most I would have just ridden easy back to the start.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"Foolhardy" is the word of the day.