Crash Weekend!

Well it was supposed to be a crash training weekend. A crash training week/weekend is where you really explore your limits in terms of volume. I was planning on a 2.4 swim Friday, 112 bike followed by an hour run Sat, and a long-ish run (2-3 hours) on Sunday. But it never happened quite like it was supposed to. The swim on Friday went great. I swam with Jeremy and we did 2 full loops, hitting the first one in 31+ and the second one in about 32+. 63 minutes was way faster than I thought I could go. But my avg HR was right where I wanted it to be. I did draft off of Jeremy for some portions of the swim, so I'm sure that helped, but I was really stoked about how well it went. The last 1/4 of the swim I pushed a little harder than I would in the race, but I never felt uncomfortable or out of breath. Overall I still think this was faster than I will likely race.
On Saturday I woke up and felt good. I had had a sore throat the later part of the week and I was worried I was going to not be 100%. The goal of the ride was actually to ride a little harder than I was planning to race at. I know what my pace/power should be for the race. So I really didn't feel the need to see that anymore. I knew I could put down almost 500 cal/hr on the bike at a HR of 150+/-. The reason for pushing maybe a little bit harder was so that I knew what I should NOT feel on race day. If ever I felt on race day that I was pushing as hard as I was in training, than I was pushing too hard. I also wanted to see if I could do the same calorie intake at a slightly harder effort. Well the first loop went well. It was faster than my goal pace by a bit (3:10 ish), but not by a lot. I came in and got re-fueled and started out on the second lap.
Then my day ended! Abruptly! I came out of the hotel and started downhill to head out of town and I remember a car passing me and then deciding that he needed to quickly turn into the gas station. Problem was that he didn't give me enough space. I hit the breaks hard and almost saved it, but over the bars I went. I don't recall actually making contact with the car, but I don't think my front wheel hit (no damage to the front tire/wheel at all). But I went flying! I hit the ground pretty hard. I remember yelling out as I was going down and I knew it was going to hurt. I jumped up pretty quick though and then realized that I should sit down as I hadn't done a "check" of my body yet. I was waiting for the shock to wear off and I would realize that a bone was sticking out. But nothing really major seemed wrong. My shoulder really hurt and I could tell I had some road rash, but other than that I was more stunned than anything. John K was right behind me and he stopped to help out. I remember he looked a little shocked. But he made sure I was okay. My bike has some bent handlebars and will need to be replaced, but no other real damage to the bike. I did drive myself over to the ER to get my shoulder x-rayed and the road rash reviewed. Everything checked out okay. Now don't get me wrong, this was still pretty serious, not so much for what happened, but what could've happened. If I had been in the aero-bars, I can assure you that I wouldn't have reached the breaks in time and things would have been much worse. If I had been going faster, things would have been worse. If...If...If. Well, when you have a young family at home, those If's become much scarier. I remember walking my bike back to the hotel (1/4 mile away) and thinking "I just got hit by a car". Let me tell you, it doesn't matter how minor the injuries/damage, that is something you don't want to say. I called the wife immediately and told her I was heading over to the ER to get checked out. The helmet was dented and is therefore being thrown away. You are only allowed one crash with a helmet.

Having laid out the scenario to several people, including those in the ER, it appears that the guy just made a turn when he shouldn't have. I personally think I was caring a little too much speed given that I was in "town" still and I know in the future I will be much more careful about it.

I'm pretty sure, that my training will take a hit. I figure I am probably not going to do too much of anything this week. I may be able to ride on a spinning bike at the gym, but I'll have to see when I am ready for that. The biggest question I have is whether I will be okay with getting back out there again on the bike on real roads. I'm pretty sure I will be, but I won't know until I clip in to those pedals. I know it gave my wife a scare and it clearly gave me a scare as well. I spent the remainder of the weekend icing and watching TV. Not the way I hoped the weekend would go. My training plans will be to get healthy and then I don't think I will really try to do any more "build" phase work (higher intensity). I think I will just stick to the volume stuff at easy pace until taper time. It is possible that my taper has already started, but I don't think so. The shoulder is feeling better already and I'm pretty much off the motrin. I will really need to focus on the diet and make sure I think about how much I eat, given that my work load is decreased. I also am pretty sure that any time goals that I may have had (although I had nothing formal...just low-mid 11 hours) are not goals anymore at all. My goals now will be to swim easy, bike even easier (i'll probably drop 10-20 watts off of my planned pace) and run with a smile. I really won't care about time. I'll just be glad that I can see my two sons at the finish line.

Dave