I sent you three boats and a helicopter!

This belated post is in regards to my bike wreck that occurred in July ...

Hopefully a couple of you out there get the punchline that is the title. If not, comment and I'll 'splain.

Some of us believe in signs, some don't. Some avoid the black kitty cat crossing the path in front of you, and some stop to scratch it's cute little chin. Either way, looking back, I can pick out a few signs that I maybe should have just stayed home on the night of our ill-fated journey. Don't worry! There's a happy ending, so read on without fear.

Tuesday's* chosen ride was the Sellersburg/Utica ride that I have written about previously. This time, the route was chosen because of the hills. I wanted to build a teeny bit of extra strength before the race on Aug 1st. And unlike the last time, I paid much better attention to Mapquest and took the correct exit and made it with time to spare and was able to gear up and dash in for a last min just-in-case pit stop. Amie then took what turned out to be a "before" picture of me in all my badass bike-chick glory.

During the pre-race "talking-to" by the bike club, the captain urged us all to join the Louisville Bike Club. Which, in all honesty is a great deal. It's only $15 for a year/ $20 for families and you learn enough on your first ride to make it worth every single cent. What caught my attention the most, though was when he said that if you are a member of the club, if you get hurt, you are covered by the club's insurance. Hmmm, I thought, good idea. I will have to officially join up later.

Time to ride! Tightening down the helmet, I'm feeling pretty good about this trek. I'm going to tear this mutha up! I look over and grin at Amie and grinning back, she raises her wrist to show off her brand new, bright red (IU, not UL) RoadID. Nice! Stylish and responsible. She then says, "Just came in today...hope it doesn't jinx us!" (Some paraphrasing has been done here. If I'm way off, I'm hoping Amie will correct me) But anyway..dun dun dunnnnnnnn....

Off we go! The weather is great, I'm in a good mood and feeling strong! I pedal out of the parking lot, up a short hill, in to the high school parking lot we use as a cut through and...throw my chain. Poop. But no big deal! Amie and nice ride Captain help me thread the chain back on and off we go again.

For the most part, this was a really great ride. I'm riding the hills stronger than I did the first time. The sun is setting, throwing gorgeous streams of pink and purples across the sky. It starts to get a little dark so I slide off my sunglasses and an Evil Indiana Flying Insect who is at the right place at the right time embeds its little self in my eye! I think I did let out quite a Yelp at this point. It took forever to dig that little sucker out and for my eye to stop watering. But, still smiling, I consider it a lesson learned and now pass it on to you! Get lightly or non-tinted sunglasses for evening rides, but always wear eye protection!

Once again, back on track. Things go pretty well from here until the intersection of Utica-Sellersburg Rd (I think) and 31W. This is a fairly large intersection so we stop for a few to wait for the light and to quench the thirst a bit. Amie says she said at this point, "I hate this road. I hate riding on the highway." The light turns green and we cross over.

We're trucking down 31W. There is an extremely wide shoulder and with the amount of traffic that speeds down this road, we're riding on the shoulder down this stretch of the course. However, said shoulder ends about 1/4 of a mile before the next big intersection and you have to maneuver back onto the road proper. Here is where I do a live enactment one of the first warnings Captain Tom ever gave me at the first bike club ride I ever attended.

Tom said, "Watch the straight cracks in road between pavement slabs. Your wheel has to move to balance, if you hit one of those straight ruts, you're going down"

Now, I have to say, it's not like I didn't believe him. I was just running out of pavement and had to make a move. I just chose the wrong one. Totally my own fault. I admit it and offer myself up as a object lesson. Stay out of the straight ruts in the road!!! I hit that separation between the slabs and went down sideways; spinning like a top across traffic stopping nose to bumper with a champagne Taurus; my brain chanting, "Get the @#$@#$ out of the road. Get the @#$@#$ out of the road. Get the @#$@#$ out of the road."

And then, like magic, I was out of the road. I don't remember if I dragged myself out of the road, if the people that stopped to help drag me out of the road or what, but there I was, on the side of the road, trying not to freak out and/or puke. Or worse, cry. The next few minutes are a little spotty in a tunnel-vision type way. I do remember thinking it hysterical that a passenger of one of the cars that stopped picked up my sunglasses and handed them to me saying, "Here. You don't want to lose these." Puffy stuff was coming out of the mussed-up side of my bike seat. A cyclist offered me her extra bottle of water. I wasn't thirsty. She told me it was to rinse off my wounds, not to drink. Indiana needs more funds for their roads.

Looking down, I then saw several places where skin used to be. But nothing appeared to be broken. I had some lovely road rash and some puncture marks in my leg from the claws on my pedal. My triscuit was all bloody. But it could have been much, much worse. Much. I don't want to think about it.

I have to mention that I do believe that the Taurus had plenty of time to stop and I don't think I was in any true danger of getting hit by a car. I did look over my shoulder before pulling my bonehead lane switch and I did not pull out in front of a car.

Amie, who is excellent in a crisis, saw an oncoming breakdown and started to try to make me laugh. She insisted my blog readers would have to hear all about this so she took pictures. I was told to pout. I laughed and pouted for the camera. And as it started to sink in that I still had 2 miles to ride before the end of the route, Amie had already activated her Indiana phone tree and had a friend on his way to pick us up. Thanks Andy!!! You were awesome and your kid is a cutie!

Long story a little shorter...I headed home for some scrubbing and ibuprofen. A few hours later, I spent some therapeutic time in a hot tub and was then wrestled down like a 3-year-old and doused with Bactine. That crap hurts as much now as it did when I was little!

A lesson learned and a great first event!

A good friday night can absolutely kill a Saturday. At least for me. I'm learning this as I inch toward race day. Priorities are shifting toward what's good for my training plan and I'm making choices that will affect the next several hours or days of workouts. Case in point: friday night - two weeks ago. I went out with some friends, stayed up too late and consumed a bit of alcohol. I knew full well, as I was imbibing, that I was expected in the parking lot of my workplace at 7:30am the next morning to travel to Shelbyville to watch our friends, Ben and Tammy compete in an Oly distance triathlon. I still had a couple of drinks, thinking I would be fine and that I could catch a nap after the race.

Next morning, I made it to the parking lot on time. I slouched in the back seat of Amie's car all the way to the race. At the race, I was fine. I got caught up in the race atmosphere and cheered on each and every competitor. Later that day, when I got back home, I showered, after that, my energy was spent. The open lap swim time at UofL came and went as I slugged through the afternoon. Ugh. That's all it took for me to decide that alcohol was off limits until after the race. I also know that I need to be better about getting 7-8 hours of sleep per night. I'm still working on that one.

This past Friday night, I attended the 1st ever night racing session at Churchill Downs. I'm surprised they haven't thought of this before. It was a complete success. The track at night takes on a very cool quality and I had a great time. Did not get in bed until after midnight. And yes, I was expected at yet another parking lot the next morning at 7:30.

Today's event was the Girlfriend's Ride in Columbus, Indiana. An all-women's 10k, 25k, or 50k ride to benefit Turning Point Domestic Violence Services. And at 7:30am after again not getting another full-night's sleep, I was not feeling very girlfriendly. I am still not quite a morning person and when I decided to start training for a tri in earnest, I had not considered the negative effect that all the training would have on my weekend sleeping-in time.

The alarm bleated at me at 6:30. I needed to make a quick shopping trip to pick up an extra cargo bag. I planned on taking a few extra things along with me as this would be the furthest I had ever ridden. I wanted my camera with me as well as some granola bars and a few extra tools in case of any technical trouble. I was in and out of the store in record time. I hopped in the car and was tooling down the road toward our designated meeting spot and whoops, I need gas! Another quick stop, and I was on my way, a little stressed out and crabby. I did not want to be the last one to show. I hate having a group of people waiting on me.

But, I arrived right on time and we all loaded up. I drove and my friend Holly rode shotgun with me. The ride up, a tall frosty Diet Coke and the conversation turned my mood completely around and by the time we pulled into the parking lot adjacent to the starting point of the ride, I was peppy and ready to ride.

For my first organized event, this one will give the others a whole lot to live up to. The bar was set high. The volunteers welcomed us, a smile on each and every pink t-shirted person. We were happily ushered over to a photographer and had our picture snapped, then on to packet pick up, a little carb loading of bananas, strawberries and homemade snacks and onto the bikes. We were off!

I was nervous about following a marked route. It was something I had never done before and I like to have my directions before hand. There was a map in the packet, but I couldn't memorize it first and I didn't think I could ride and read, so I decided to trust in the road markers and give it a whack. Before this, every ride I had been on so far was led by a ride captain from the local bike club. I didn't need to know the route, I just followed the crowd. I need not to have worried! The route for this ride was perfectly marked. Each turn was clearly marked with a hot pink heart and direction lines. If you were paying even a little bit of attention, you couldn't get lost.

The weather was beautiful. While a little warm, the beginning and final few miles of the route was liberally dotted with trees. Columbus has a spectacular park system with frequent lakes and nicely kept landscaping. Also, hats off to the residents of Columbus, there were as many if not more gorgeously kept gardens in yards to smile at as there were lovely spots out amongst the vineyard and farms.

While we were riding against some wind, it provided a cooling breeze when I needed it. The route was very conducive to a fun ride with girlfriends. The difficultly could be upped by doing one of the higher distances, but I thought the 25k was perfect for me to work on some gear change strategies and challenge myself with a longer distance than I had ever ridden before. There were a few moderate hills, but as I climbed them, I used what I had learned about my gears and advice I had either read or been given. I shifted early and powered through. And thanks to Shannon who had a speedometer on her bike and every so often would call out how fast we were riding! That was a big help. I have to get one of those.

At about mid point, we pulled in to rest at a pretty little winery. Again, amazing volunteers! We were treated to shoulder massages, live music, clean nice restrooms (very important!) along with another smorgasbord of fresh fruit, water, gatorade and other carb laden treats. 10-15 minute rest and off we went! Half way there!

The majority of the 2nd half of the ride took us through Indiana farmland. Vibrant fields of corn and other crops sped by us on both sides underneath a crisp blue sky interrupted every so often by farmhouses that had very likely watched over their farms for generations. How perfectly charming.

A few miles later, we took a detour through a park and get a 45 second deviation into off road biking! A ride steward directed us where to turn off and also took some pictures of us. I cheekily struck a pose; I was having a great time! Then I struck off through some gravel and grass to a tree lined shady bike path back in to the tidy neighborhoods of Columbus, one of which had a lake with houses surrounding; explosions of flowers and bright colors all around us.

Another stop! Yay! This time at a school and there were more gracious and cheerful volunteers, water and lemonade. And yep, more carbs to keep us going the rest of the way. Back on our bikes a few minutes later, through town proper past a festival sporting bagpipers (we pretended they were for us) and to the finish line. There, covered in sun, smiles and sucking down free smoothies, we celebrated our finish rested a few, then headed home.

A good day! I will definitely be on board next year.
If I could change anything?
Next year...I may do the 50.