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Yesterday I went for a 20 mile ride east through Norfolk. I wanted to find some good roads for when Kathy gets back out on her bike. I didn't have my cool weather clothes with me so I had to keep on peddling in order to keep warm. It was a good ride.
First off, Kathy is doing well. She is home and recovering and itching to get back into training for the Lake Placid Ironman. She looks like she got the crap beaten out of her. She's feeling better and looking nastier. I guess that's the way the body heals. Her head hurts the least and the rest of her body/injuries are feeling sore.
She is mostly frustrated that she has to take a break in her training schedule. I think she even got back on her bike trainer yesterday.
She had mentioned that her front wheel went wobbly as she was coming down the hill. She was also trying to switch to her "drops" midway down. Though I don't think that explains why her front wheen started to oscillate.
I went out for a ride on Sunday and tried to see if I could make my front wheel go wobbly at 20 mph. The gyroscopic forces from the spinning wheel were so strong at those speeds (20 mph) that I had difficulty trying to forcibly induce the beginnings of a loss of control.
Kathy's father had a theory that the front wheel might not have been seated correctly. I suspect he might be on to something.
I took my friend Kathy out on a ride on Saturday. At mile 11.5 she lost control of her bike going down a hill at 20 mph and went head first into the road. A passing driver called an Ambulance and it arrived within 5 minutes. She was unconscious for a couple of minutes. As you can see from the pictures, the hemlet made a difference.
Just look at how compressed the one side is.
It was scary seeing someone that hurt and unconscious. I was ahead of her and I heard her go down. I turned around and saw that she fell. Then I saw that she was very twisted and moving in a weird way. At first I thought she broke her collarbone. She was moving, but not conscious or aware. She had a "beyond blank" look in her eyes. She was very bloody. After I determined she had not broken her collarbone, I carefully positioned her so that she was on her back and elevated her legs. I also tried to keep her "awake", I didn't want her eyes to close and have her go completly unconscious. After 2-3 minutes she became coherent. "What happened?" was the first thing she said. Then "How's my bike?", I knew she was going to be alright at that point. Five minutes after the wreck, the Bellingham EMS trucks came and they took over.
This helmet took the brunt of the impact.
Amazingly, she has no broken bones. Not even a cracked skull. Again, the helmet pretty much saved her life.
Finally! A nice weekend up here in New England where I don't have to "Layer up" in order to go out for a ride.
Saturday was a busy day. My father-in-law was in town and it was a perfect day to take the family to the Roger Williams Park Zoo. We spent most of the day there. I was able to squeeze in an evening bike ride. Only 12 miles, but enough to shake some of the cobwebs off ;-)
Sunday I took Kathy out for a ride. She had recently gotten a new bike, a Seven, for her upcoming Iron Man Triathlon in Lake Placid (She is also doing the one in Hawaii this summer).
The ride was just over 30 miles and took us through Norfolk, Franklin, Wrentham, Cumberland RI, and back. I miscalculated the distance and made her late for a dinner appointment. Sorry Kathy.
Anyway, it was really nice to go for a ride and not have to wear three layers of clothing.
