Week 21 started pretty well after the team rides. On the Tuesday I dropped off Rich's bike at Evans for its service. The person I spoke to at the shop clearly considered customers to be an inconvenience. However I managed to drop the bike off after answering 20 questions about when it was due to be serviced had I got permission to drop it off a couple of days early etc. I decided to ride to work on the Wednesday making pretty good time both to and from work. That evening I went to the gym with the wife and I have to say that my quads were struggling a bit. Friday I picked up Rich's bike. Everything seemed to be ok so I let Rich know he could collect it anytime.
Saturday was a 5am start with me getting to e's at 6am to join e, Ciaran and Simon for a 100 mile ride. Simon was cycling to a friends who lived 90 miles away in Oxfordshire so we tagged along for the first 50 odd miles before turning round and coming back. The weather was excellent, not too hot but with glorious sunshine. The countryside was absolutely wonderful, and I really enjoyed the ride. I think that e was struggling a bit but he seemed to get stronger throughout the ride. We ended up doing just over 12o miles and got back a bit later than I had hoped.
When I got home the eldest kid was very keen to try cycling with her stabilisers, after a couple of goes she was getting the hang of it so I ask the second eldest if he would like to have a go without stabilisers on his bike. Of course he would and pretty soon we had two kids cycling without stabilisers. A real red letter day. They were so pleased with themselves and I was extremely proud.
Sunday we take the kids swimming so I could not go out until 11 o'clock. But I managed to get 55 miles in before getting home and having a relaxing time with the kids (who ofcourse wanted to go out on their bikes ;-))
Week 22 I decided to ride into work on the Tuesday morning. Rich came round at 7am to pick up his bike and after a cup off tea he drove off and I cycled to work. The ride was going well right up until the last road before work. It is a dual carriageway with a cycle lane. I was happily going along the cycle lane with the traffic stopping coming up to a roundabout so I started to slow down when a driver made a snap decision to turn off the road. This cut me up and I went smashing into the side of her car. I am not sure who was more shaken me or the driver. It was the witness who told me that the dent in the side of the car was where my head hit it!! The driver quite rightly accepted all responsibility and liability and was extremely apologetic. (In the words of the witness the driver was lucky that it was me she hit and not one of the children who use the cycle lane and path as with all my training I am probably in the best shape of my life. The impact on a child could have been fatal. )
The obvious damage to me was my arm was bleeding, a lot of damage to my bike and my cycling shorts.
After getting all the details of the driver and the witness I walk the last couple of hundred yards to work. Where I got my arm bandaged up and rang CTC to register the accident. All day I was feeling a bit light headed so I got the wife to collect me from work at lunch time. I spoke to my doctor and he was confident that I did not need to go to A&E . Wednesday my shoulder and back began to hurt so I saw the nurse on site at work and she instructed my to have Physio the next day and put ice on the injuries. This I did. When I saw the Physio on Thursday she felt that I took the brunt of the fall on my right arm and shoulder so she spent the session working on these injuries. Her conclusion was that riding this weekend will not impact on my ability to do the event at the end of the week. But I should expect to feel some pain. So I will be seeing her again on Monday and Thursday next to continue the treatment.
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