Well, shoot. I guess injury is inevitable if you are a cyclist, be it competitive, recreational, or even in this case, utilitarian. Still, it sucks when you do get injured. A completely fluke accident on Wednesday around 1pm has put me out of commission for a while.

I was on my lunch break cruising from my office over to the Division of Wildlife office to see about getting an elk tag. You take a right hand turn off of Main down this inconspicuous road. I was cruising downhill on my IRO singlespeed at a pretty good clip, maybe 18-20mph. There came a separation of sunlight and shadow on the road; I didn’t think much of it. Unfortunately, the shadow obscured my view of a rather large bump in the road, and I hit it dead on. Not being prepared for such an obstacle, I was bucked off the bike and commenced flying superman style. My palms hit the pavement first. There isn’t much skin left on them at the moment. I then rolled through my left elbow and onto my back, where upon I slid for a good 20 feet. Luckily, I had on jeans and a thick coat. I sustained a few strawberries and bruises on my legs, but as far as road rash is concerned, came out unscathed. I was not wearing a helmet, and very very luckily didn’t hit my head on anything.

The elbow that I rolled through is not doing so well. There is a fracture in the radial head. The elbow joint sac is full of blood, and I have very limited movement. In fact, the doc decided to go ahead and put a cast on, so I have no movement at all. There is likely lots of strain in all the surrounding soft tissue. It hurts like hell. More than anything, my pride is bit hurt. I’ve never broken a bone. I did it while on a routine trip across town, not even from some awesome MTB or ski crash.

This injury brings painful memories of the shoulder dislocation and how hard it made life. That injury was a bit more severe, but at least I had a loving wife to help me it. I’ve got a few weeks ahead of me in this cast, and then probably a sling, all on my own this go round. I’m already having great difficulty driving, typing, and simple hand tasks you take for granted, like opening or door, or unclipping a sheet of paper from a clipboard. It sucks.

At least i’ve been through something like this before, so am a bit more prepared mentally. Sometimes forced time off is good thing. While I’m dreading not being able to shred some fresh powder in a few weeks, I can look forward to lots of R&R , and a chance to get the paleo site a facelift, which is ironic since the site was built during the off time i had from the last injury.

Life goes on…