The Road to Kona; Chicago Edition #8

Leading up to this weekend, I was having some of the best training of the year. On Thursday I did a 2 hour run and felt great - maintaining 8:30 miles the whole time and well in my aerobic heart rate zone. Jennifer and I decided to meet up with Coach Ryan and some of the other Break Through Multisport athletes for a ride in Madison on Saturday. We got up early and drove up in the morning. We started out from Fireman's Park to do two 40 miles loops around the Ironman Wisconsin course. The first loop was great - I averaged 220 watts and really had a good time going up and down the rollers. Of course, the most interesting part was watching Jennifer accelerate up the hills as I struggled.. We met a rider along the course who also marveled at Jenifer's climbing ability and remarked that we need to get her a coach next year and follow her career...

We then stopped back at the park for a quick re-fill of water and set out on loop two.
We were about 4 miles into the loop, going down a moderate hill when I heard the pop. My back tire blew and I needed to act quick. My brain was saying not to hit the back brake too hard and feather the front. Physics said otherwise. Best I can tell, right after my tire blew I hit a pothole that knocked the tire off the rim. Next thing I knew, I was headed right over the handlebars flying to the brush on the side. I ended up in a small ravine with my feet in the air. I started to wiggle all my extremities and checked for any major injuries. No searing pain, so I was pretty lucky. Of course, I was still stuck in the ravine and needed help getting up. The road rash on my arm, hip and leg were pretty dirty so we decided to head to the emergency room to get me cleaned up.

We were again pretty lucky to get in and out of the emergency room in about two hours and the nice doctors in Madison gave me plenty of pain medicine as they scrubbed my wounds.

As Jennifer can tell you, we were especially lucky that my face came out with no bruises since we are getting married in 13 days - the wedding pictures should turn out great.

Well, 9 weeks till Kona and this little setback came at a bad time. My body feels like I was beat up with lots of deep bruises on my forearm, right hip and lower right leg. I am able to get around ok and nothing was broken. So I'll take this week a little slow and try the elliptical trainer on Monday. The doctor told me to avoid swimming until the wounds heal to prevent infection, but I'll need to get back on my bike soon...