Yes, it’s ironic that the very week I choose to write about how I’m biking to work for the health benefits is the week I decide to crash my bike on the way home. Yay me!
Yes, on my way home from work on Friday, I made a stupid move (I took a driveway ramp at too shallow an angle); and my bike started to fall over. It would have been fine, except I just got clipless pedals a couple of weeks ago and am still not very good at clipping out of them. Basically, I forgot to kick my leg out and just toppled over with the bike. Fortunately (or unfortunately, for my pride), no cars were involved (except for the six thousand people who witnessed me acting like a fool and asked if I was ok), and my injuries were relatively minor. I got a nasty scrape to the knee, which is still a bit stiff this morning; and I managed to bruise something in my wrist. Fortunately, nothing is broken or even swollen. My bike, on the other hand, has seen better days. At the very least, it will need a new front wheel.
Let this be a lesson to you all. The only safe way to live is spend your days watching the Simpsons while eating a tube of cookie dough. Even that isn’t all that safe as you still have to go out of the house occasionally to get more cookie dough.
Ouch! Thank goodness there are so many years of the Simpsons to watch. And Peapod to deliver that cookie dough.
One our staff scientists took up triathlons (in her 50s!), and started doing a lot of bike riding with those weird pedal things. For months she was showing up at work bandaged and bruised. We’d just look at her and shake our heads and say, “Oh, Maggie. You fell off the bike again, didn’t you?”
Anyway, good for you for the bike riding!