Crash

The goal for the day was a 5hr ride at base pace. That wasn't the initial plan for the day but my schedule needed to be tweaked due to a trip to Albany to be with my family this weekend. Andrea moved the long ride but warned me to be careful. She didn't want me to do anything 'crazy' since I had loaded up the middle of my rest week.
----
Michael and I set out for our ride just after sunrise. He'd agreed to join me for the majority of it since his schedule was free of meetings until 2pm.
----
My goal for the ride was to set a solid base pace, to enjoy the ride with my favorite person in the world, and to test out my brand new Shebeest tri shorts. The plan seemed doable and the morning seemed great, a bit of a chill and sunny... just the way I'm envisioning CDA.
----
Well... as I'm sure you can guess... it didn't really happen according to plan. Just before 8am, we were making a left turn onto a road in P-ville (en-route to Elgin) and I befriended a large group of pebbles in the middle of the turn. My superhuman vision allowed me to spot these rocks just as I hit them.
----
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. I was going into the pebbles, made it the majority of the way, and slid down. That's all I could think about was how slowly I seemed to be getting up and out of the road. I just needed to get out of the road and it seemed to be taking to long to stand back up. The minute I got to the side of the road I sat down and grew very dizzy and disoriented. The lady in the mini-van behind us stopped to help, she was very concerned that I'd fallen b/c I felt she was rushing me through the turn. I started blurting out, "I'm okay," as quickly as I could be sure didn't feel that way. I felt as if I was about to pass out and just wanted to lay down but Michael was about to let me do that.
----
The lady in the mini-van brought over some wet wipes and I cleaned off a bit. We then inspected the bike and realized my arm rest was completely bent and my shifters were turned to the side. Michael bent the shifters back but he wasn't quite strong enough to bend the aluminum back to place.
----
He asked if I wanted to keep riding and I reluctantly said I'd try, I could already feel the pain. After about 1/4 mile I pulled over to the side. There was no way I was going to ride this bike for the rest of the ride. I said we should head home and if I felt okay when we got there I could break out the Merlin for the rest of the ride.
----
The ride home was painful and slow, there was no question in my mind that I was done for the day when I rolled in. I sat down on the front step and looked at my watch, 9:32. "Okay, Mich... you've got 3 minutes to feel sorry for yourself and that's it." I let out some tears of frustration and anger, my body was just starting to recover from the car crash last month and now this. Just as my poopy time was over Michael came out and asked if I wanted a hug. It made me feel instantly better and we began to joke about my brand new shorts. "If you wear them in the Ironman people will think your hard core." Then we took a couple of pictures and I went upstairs to inflict more pain by attempting to clean the wounds.
----
Andrea and I spoke later in the day. "It's just a bit of a speed bump," she told me. I guess she's correct. Ironman training isn't about wining it's about facing what you're given and overcoming it. The training is said to be the hardest part and getting to the start line means a lot. There is a lot of truth in that. We do this training to make ourselves stronger and to discover who we really are. Hopefully when I toe the line in 6 weeks I'll know I did everything I could to get there in the best condition possible.