Time to Retire my Mountain Bike:(

It’s been a long week of recovery…today was a big milestone because I was actually able to swim!
Now…back to the beginning of the story:
Tuesday was like any other day for me…it started with a hard swim practice in the morning. The USA Triathlon office organized a pizza party/lunch for all the resident athletes so I spent mid-day hanging out with the people that make my world possible. After lunch, I headed out for a 2 hour mountain bike ride which was suppose to be followed by a short run at the track. Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperative and about 30 minutes into my ride, it started RAINING. Since it was already pretty cold, the rain slowly turned into HAIL…and then it was SLEET…and if you haven’t figured it out already…I was hauling @$$ trying to get back to my car before it started to SNOW!
I was riding with a tail-wind…I was riding down-hill…I was on a paved section of the path…I was hauling-@$$...add those all together and I was going pretty fast. Suddenly, I whip around a corner and all I see in front of me is this IDIOT biking on the WRONG side of the trail!!
In the split-second of time that I had, I swerved to the left, locked up my brakes…and then it gets a bit hazy…I probably flipped over the front of my bike (I don’t think I actually hit the Idiot), nailed my head on the ground (thank goodness for helmets…because I broke ANOTHER one!), smashed my hip really hard, got the wind knocked out of me, and slid a couple yards because the ground was wet!
So after I rolled around on the ground for a good 60 seconds trying to get some air back in my lungs…I just want to get up and finish my ride because I’m freezing. The Idiot that caused this is trying to blame ME by saying I was going to fast!!! Now I’m cold, sore, and PISSED OFF!
Then I hear the ‘Comment Of The Day’ come out of this guy’s mouth: “I’m a professional European mountain biker.” WHAT?!?! Well, Welcome to America…We ride on the RIGHT side of the road!!!
I finally made it back to the track and told Cliff what happened. He excused me from the rest of the training session and I drove straight back to Sports Med (it was a bit of deja-vu from the last time I was on my mountain bike).
I spent the rest of Tuesday night thinking I was going to be fine…I was a bit sore, but nothing that I couldn’t handle. I went to dinner at Carrabba’s with some friends and then we saw Employee of the Month (cute and funny movie, I’d give it a 7 out of 10). As we were leaving that theater, we walked by The Departed theater and since it was starting in 10 minutes, we went in and watched a second movie for free (shhhh…don’t tell:)!
Wednesday morning…I woke up and immediately realized that waking up was a bad idea. I was IN PAIN! My back had shooting pains from this one spot under my shoulder blade (the exact spot that felt like it was moved out-of-whack when I crashed and hit my head really hard). My solution to most soreness problems is to go for a nice swim and usually that will loosen everything up.
Apparently, that was the WRONG idea for this. I struggled through 1000 meters before I was crying so hard that I just gave up and got out. Every stroke created a stabling pain from this one spot. I went to Sports Med and was actually a bit frustrated when their only ideas are: Ice, Advil, and Stem (electric stimulation).
Whatever, I’m in pain, so I did it…three different times on Wednesday. Still no improvement…I would even say that it was hurting MORE.
Thursday morning…I can’t even get dressed with out screaming in pain…so I try swimming again. (Yep, I’m a stubborn athlete!!) Apparently I didn’t learn my lesson the first time…so this time I swam 300 meters and I was seeing stars. Another trip to Sports Med and this time I was serious. I put my foot down with the darn Ice & Advil routine and said I want a solution to this pain.
After a bit of poking and prodding, they decided that I had a dislocated rib!! Yeah…36 hours LATER…someone finally decides that there might be something out-of-whack! I got an immediate appointment with the chiropractor, drove to his offices, lay down on the table, and got the adjustment of my dreams! Since that moment, the progression of pain getting worse has turned into pain getting better (unfortunately, it takes more than 36 hours to de-aggravate the muscles and tendons that were affected while my rib was out of place).
A new week and my training is officially back at 100%...And the weather is beautiful outside. I took advantage of the cool-but-sunny day yesterday to ride all over COS. Today, I’ve got a 2 hour hike on my ‘things-to-do’ and it should be fantastic!