In the meantime, I’ve been making a huge push with my mortgage acceleration business. I sent out a bunch of marketing packages earlier this week to local realtors and will follow up today with phone calls. If you haven’t heard of this program, I invite you to check it out. I can show you how to own your home free and clear in one-half to one-third the time and potentially save tens of thousands in interest. All this without refinancing, without changing your monthly mortgage payment, and without adjusting your current living lifestyle. To find out if this program is right for you, and to see if you qualify, is free. Contact me if you want to know more.

Did you like this story? If so, please bookmark it by clicking on an icon(s) below.

My alarm went off at 5:00 AM as always for a weekday ride. I’d gotten a decent amount of sleep last night and felt ok. Maybe too much because I felt like I was in a fog for the first few minutes of the ride. After that, though, I began to come back to reality. The weather was good and there was actually a little chill in the air. That was nice considering the 90F days we’ve been having recently. It was chilly enough that I rode with my jersey zipped up. No moon in the sky so it was dark.

Starting off my legs felt….weird. They didn’t feel bad and didn’t feel great. They just kind of felt there. It was a weird feeling. They began to warm up and for the first time in a long time, I started to feel it in my quads near the end of my ride. A little discomfort in my hamstrings wasn’t uncommon but for me to feel it in my quads was new. I spent many years lifting weights and have very muscular quads that usually have no trouble doing whatever I ask of them. Maybe this is a sign that I’m making progress. Or maybe it’s a result of not riding in a week. Or maybe I’m just getting old. Not sure.

For a Wenesday there seemed to be very little traffic and until I reached my halfway point I didn’t see another rider, runner, or walker. The rider I did see was the Christmas Tree dude. He was going the opposite direction on a divided highway so I didn’t get a chance to say “Hi.” I did see some roadkill (a dead racoon) laying in the road but he had seen better days. It’s funny-yesterday, my wife had picked me up a new t-shirt that was from a place called the Roadkill Cafe here in town. The shirt is awesome. Little did I realize that both the racoon and tshirt were trying to tell me something.

I power through No Man’s Land and begin the 3 mile straightaway back home. I cruise these last few miles and with about a half mile to go I take it to the sidewalk. I take to the sidewalk because near the end of my ride there’s a big intersection and when I hit it on my return leg it’s very busy this time of the morning. Rather than mess with the traffic light and cars I hit the sidewalk and use the crosswalk. So, this morning I did the same thing. I’m riding down the sidewalk with no problems. I get to about 100 feet from the crosswalk and stop pedaling so I can just coast to the intersection. That’s when it happens. I feel a big jolt and the next thing I know I’m flying to the left and my bike is leaving the ground. I hit the ground hard and before I know it, it’s over except for the pain.

The first thing I notice is that my mouth is full of dirt. That would turn out to be a good thing. Then I notice my left leg and shoulder are hurting. I had somehow managed to get my pedals unclipped and I’m laying on the ground next to my bike which is laying half in the grass and half on the sidewalk. I remove my helmet and begin to survery the damage. It takes several seconds to get all the dirt out of my mouth. Once that’s done I look at my leg. I’ve got a huge piece of roadrash below my left knee that is just starting to seep blood. In a few seconds the blood has run from the rash to my ankle where I have a small cherry just above my sock. That’s when I see the huge knot just below my knee. This thing is huge and has a big red cherry on it. It starts to bleed. My shoulder is sore from hitting the ground. I get up and nothing feels broken. Whew! I pick up my bike, put the chain back on, and set it against a small tree just off the sidewalk. Now I try to figure out what happened. I look back up the sidewalk and I immediately see it. About every fifty feet or so on this road there’s a drain at the curb that leads to a box culvert under the sidewalk which in turn leads to drainage pipes under the sidewalk/road. At each of these curb drains there’s a small access cover on the sidewalk. In order to integrate the access cover with the sidewalk there’s a seam that curves about halfway onto the sidwalk following the contour of the access plate. At the point where I crashed there’s one of these curb drains. The seam that curves into the sidewalk looks to have a gap in it just wide enough for a bike tire to fit into. My guess is that my tire slipped into this small gap and caused me to crash. I must have hit that gap perfectly because it doesn’t look much wider than my tire. Unbelievable. Looking at the distance between where my shoulder hit the ground and the gap and it’s about ten feet. No wonder my leg looks like it got run through a meat grinder. If my recollection is correct, my tire briefly become caught in the gap and it threw me and my bike to the left. My left shoulder hit the ground first followed by my left leg dragging down the sidewalk for several feet. Maybe as far as 6-8 feet. I look where my shoulder hit and I realize just how lucky I was. My shoulder hit square in the dirt next to the sidewalk and left a huge gouge. If my shoulder had hit the sidewalk I’d most likely be suffering from a broken collarbone right now. Man I was lucky.

I get back on the bike and make it across the intersection with no problems. As I head across the crosswalk I can only imagine what the drivers are thinking as the blood is running down my leg. As I’m pedaling the last quarter mile home my left leg is starting to ache pretty good. I get home and immediately head to the shower to get everything cleaned up. The shower hurts initially but I eventually get everything clean. It looks pretty bad. I think the knot below my knee has actually gone down some. I wake up my wife to help me bandage the carnage. She sprays on an antiobiotic for cuts and scrapes. According to the can it’s not supposed to hurt. Yeah right. It was excruciating! Once the pain subsided we bandaged everything up. I’m sore but able to move around ok. What a morning! I’ll post the numbers for the ride later.

How was that for a return to riding after a week off? These last few weeks have been unbelievable. I almost wonder if somebody is trying to tell me something. I will say one thing though…No More Excuses!

Did you like this story? If so, please bookmark it by clicking on an icon(s) below.

The nurse checked me in, took my BP and pulse, and I waited for the doctor.  He came in and said my BP and pulse were excellent.  We talked about my recent return to bicycling to lose weight, how I’m doing it, mileage so far, diet modifications, and weight goals.  All-in-all it was a very good talk.  I guess I was fortunate that I had to have this visit and it coincided with the beginning of Biking To Live.

Did you like this story? If so, please bookmark it by clicking on an icon(s) below.

I went to the Trek shop for two reasons. First, I had never been in there and wanted to check it out, and two, it was right around the corner from where my youngest does ballet so before picking her up I thought I would check out the store. The store was nice and the bikes (Trek, Cervelo, Lemond) they had were nice. Upon arriving I asked where the road saddles were. I was escorted to the ‘road’ section of the store and shown a display of exactly 3 styles of saddles. All by the same manufacturer. I was like, “this is it?” Come on. After looking at the display I went back to the guy and told him I needed help getting fit for the right width saddle. Something measured in inches, not millimeters. I didn’t say that but that’s how I felt after thinking how much bigger I am now than when I bought my Cannondale 15 years ago. The guy said he was new and couldn’t do it. He’d have to get the manager. I say ok and wait. The manager comes out and looks like he just came back from a ride or was getting ready to go. Not necessarily bad, it is a bike shop, but it did surprise me a little. After explaining my problem he took me over to the device they use to measure your sit bones. After two unsuccessful attempts to measure me, and reading the directions several times, he came to the conclusion that the tool for doing the measuring was broken. And that was it.

Well, now what do I do? Upon arriving at home I put the Schwinn saddle back on and make a quick loop of the neighborhood. It feels good. It’s wider and softer than the Vetta. I think I’ll give it a try on Wednesday and see how it goes. I think I’m going to have to wait until I lose a significant amount of weight before I can go back to a normal road saddle.

I’ll also take my good friend Jaxgtr’s advice and get measured at Open Road Bicycles.

Did you like this story? If so, please bookmark it by clicking on an icon(s) below.

I read an interesting by Ray at Bike Noob entitled I’m Riding In Comfort Now that makes me wonder if my bike shorts have contributed to the problem. My shorts are relatively new and were only used on stationary bikes when I was stationed on my last ship. They’re a pair of Nashbar shorts and look very similar to the ones in Ray’s article above. I may have to look at getting some nicer shorts.

Did you like this story? If so, please bookmark it by clicking on an icon(s) below.