A Crash

This week was tough personally for  me. I had a tough week at work with paperwork and surgeries. my training quite literally took a back seat. i struggled in my pool class on thursday with YF and could barely keep up. My strokes were frankly horrid and i was trailing the whole class the entire time.

On saturday was our usual FITR ride. I had looked forward to this ride which would include another mount faber sojourn this time of the "k2" side. we started off at my place at 4 amd rode steadily through NUS and then west coast.we looped around at Jurong Island and then rode up the Keppel Viaduat. While the first part was pretty leisurely and we were all chit chatting, the pace picked up noticeably when we turned around. The front pack was riding at 43- 45 km/h  and i was struggling to keep up. I rode on my drops to improve aerodynamics and was barely holding on. The steady group was about 30 m behind so i pretty much was riding along. At that point a long trailer pulled up next to me. I could feel the air turbulence adn it unseated me momentarily. I got off my drops and placed my hands on the tops. That's when i saw it. a jagged pothole looming ride in front of me. It wasn't the largest but it spanned the space between the left barrier wall of the viaduct and the wheel of the trailer. I had nowhere to go . i braked so that i could allow the trailer to pass me. I did not particularly relish the idea of hitting the pothole and ending up in the underbelly of the long trailer. I hit the pothole at speed and steadied myself. Its funny we always imagine theis entities to be a hole and that's that/ Ton that day i realised when i landed in it that there was a hole within a hole. I felt it in my bones when i hit the second one. I was thrown forwards and could feel myself separting from the bike but not before i kicked it. i landed heavily on my right. and sprung up immediately. CH was right behind me and came to my assistance. ALl my stuff was on the road, my mobile phone, spare wheel, bidons and a rear wheel. My chain had also come lose, my glasses were off and i had left a lot of skin on the road; contributed namely by right shoulder, right flank, right hip( gosh the fabric was torn andtattered), right knee and ankle. Amzaingly i did not feel much pain; most likely to the adrenaline rush. I continued after we got the bike righted. amazingly it was still in a ride-able condition and we finished the 70 km.I had felt ok after that. We stopped at Evans for breakfast and that's where it all hit home. my hip was sore,i could not weight bear and my abrasions hurt like hell.

bathing was difficult and the pain sharp, but it reminded me i was alive and was fortunate in thatr espect. I will be out for a bit. The wounds have gotten a bit infected and I have to wait the wounds epithelialize before i restart my training.

Understandably my mood was a tad darker in the antecedent few days but i feel better now. Lesson learnt? Yes, ostensibly. Riding safe means knowing your limits and capabilities.