Falling

Just before Christmas, I got a new tube for my bike after it sat on the patio for most of last year. It was mostly a matter of procrastination that kept me from taking care of it. First I was travelling and then it was winter when I came home and the weather wasn’t great for riding. By December, I’d started to get an itch to ride again and so we took the tire into the shop and had the tube changed. I noticed a few days later there was no cap on the tube and rode to the shop to get one for it. I’d only taken shorter rides so far and this was my longest ride since I started back again. It all went well enough and I got to the shop and got a new cap. I also booked the bike in for a service. It did go the better part of a year without use so I suspect there’s stuff to adjust and oil and whatever else needs doing. I had actually left home with the idea I would drop it off without considering I need to book ahead of time. Anyway, it’s going in tomorrow to be serviced and I will either walk home or take a bus or perhaps a bit of both.

I stopped into the shopping centre afterwards to look for something and then stopped into one of my favorite tea shops to get a drink. I had taken a cool bag with two different reusable cups, depending on the shop I visited. One is plastic and has the logo for the shop where I ended up. The other one is generic and is made of glass. After I got my drink I started on my way home and put the drink in the basket with the bag. All was going well on the way home as I made my way towards the pathway next to the highway. I stopped at the corner of a busy road and a quiet side street to wait for traffic to clear so I could cross the road to the sidewalk on the opposite side. I’m not sure what happened while I waited but suddenly the balance of the bike started to tip over and I felt things happen in slow motion as I landed on the ground, fortunately, more on the side street. A vehicle stopped and a lady got out to check on me. She helped me up and I was okay for the most part. Just a bit shaken. My first thought as I was landing was that I was going to lose most, it not all, of my drink. Surprisingly it was fine and nothing much spilled. It wasn’t until later I thought of the glass cup inside my bag. That was also fine. As for myself, I had a bit of a graze on both my hands and my left knee but felt okay. After thanking the lady for her assistance, I walked across the side road into a little park to have a bit of a break and drink my tea. Then I got back on and went home. I was pleased to be able to increase the load on the gears so I could travel faster and got home more quickly than with the low gear settings. The only issue was the friction on my hands was uncomfortable for much of the ride. Once home I had a shower and cleaned up the slight wounds and was able to relax.

Things got a bit sore over the next couple of days. Not painfully sore but enough to be uncomfortable. I did go to pilates on Friday morning and later to the gym. My shoulders were quite sore that night. Not sure if it was due to exercise or injury or maybe a bit of both. There’s still some soreness in my left shoulder where I landed but it’s not terrible. Also, my knee is a bit bruised but not terribly so. I’ve just been taking it a bit easier before I have to take my bike in tomorrow. I’m hoping it’s not as windy as expected tomorrow as I hate riding in strong winds. Still, it will be warm so shouldn’t be too bad Also I’m hoping nothing got knocked out of whack when the bike fell. It all happened so slowly that I doubt anything was likely to be damaged. After all, I basically fell while at a standstill.