White men don't bounce...

Well, those who follow me a bit have probably noted a certain up-beatness in the last few posts (well at least I hope so...) the decision to stop training until next year was certainly the right one and I was feeling a lot better for it.  But, stopping training hadn't meant an end to the various stuff I had entered so  I was still planning to front up for the Highland Fling in November and just quietly... even without a proper lead in my form was actually pretty solid.

I'd gone out on the Cyclocross with the Sydney Cycle club 'A' bunch for the regular wednesday club ride and ok... I did get dropped but pretty much managed to hang on until the climb up Cranbrook... not bad on knobbies!

I took Thursday off (I was planning to ride but alarm went off and I thought... nah - stuff that... one of the advantages of not being on a programme!) but got up nice and Friday morning (9th Nov - Thanks Ryan for pointing out the lack of dates!) to head out on the Mountain Bike for a nice endurance paced ride just to get the kinks out of the legs.

Now, really in hindsight it was all going wrong even when I rolled out of the garage - I couldn't make a decision on which way to go... unusual for me.  Anyway, I decided to do a loop out to Homebush and back - out via the Cooks River Cycleway and back through Concord.  A good 90 minute or so loop... just what I needed.

Yeah... shoulda just done loops around Botany like I was thinking - so much for taking the 'safer' option...

So, made it through the Princess Highway truck fest and got onto the cycle way.  About 1/2 an hour in all was going well and I felt pretty good (although my Quarq power meter was playing up...).  THen as I came around a corner a large tree branch was blocking the path... no dramas I'm on a mountain bike.

So, all went ok swerving off the path but as I swerved back on, the combination of wet grass and tyres and a slippery path all proved to be too much for the gods of traction and the front washed out and I went down.  Hard.  Very Hard.

Now, crashing is just part of riding generally and MTB riding in particular so I'm used to just picking myself up and continuing.  Not this time.  The accident happened so quickly that I came down still holding the 'bars with my shoulder taking the full force of the impact followed by my head.  All at about 30km/h.

Once I slid to a stop I lay on the path trying to get my head around what had happened and beginning to work out just how badly I was hurt.  After a couple of minutes I felt well enough to sit up... my arm and shoulder were really sore but more worrying was the stars... I really couldn't see very well.  Fortunately that cleared relatively quickly and I was just left with the pain in my shoulder and arm.

So, I'm a bit of an old hand with shoulder breaks - after all I broke my right scapula 8 weeks out from the 2010 World Solo Championships!  Now, in that break, it was more like being winded and I didn't really suspect anything was wrong until I tried to pick up my bike and found my right arm just wouldn't work.

Step one... try and stand up.  Yup.  That's do-able.

Step two... can I move my right arm?  Yes... hurts like fsck though

Step three... how's the bike?  Looks ok, just need to bang that seat post straight again...

Step four... here comes the nausea... time to sit down.

I probably ended up sitting there for another 5 minutes or so... and the bang to the head probably didn't put me in a good place to make any decisions.  I blame this for deciding that the most sensible thing to do was to ride home.  Funny how the mind works, the main justification in my head at the time was that I wasn't sure exactly where I was and it would be too hard to describe to Lisa where to find me!

So I managed to get back on the bike - my arm and shoulder felt like they were on fire and I worked out that going home wasn't the plan.  Lucky me RPA is on the way home...

So the ride to the accident took me about 30 minutes... it took me nearly 50 to get back to RPA.  By the time I got there I was not in a good way - at least this gets you straight to the head of the Emergency queue.  After getting seen I finally managed to call Lisa - probably not the call to get as you're trying to feed two small boys and get them to daycare!

By the tine she got there I was doped up on morphine and had been off for one lot of x-rays.  The initial verdict was a broken scapula.  Again.  It was just complicated as the crack in my helmet and (probable) concussion gets the residents pretty excited.

So...

Here's the damage!

So this really it for the year!  Looks like a good six weeks to heal... sigh.  The run of fun continues!

I'll write more later but this typing one handed thing is just not as much fun as you'd think!