It was a gorgeous day here in the Pacific Northwest. It was one of those days where you think maybe all those months of miserable, wet, cold weather was worth it. Sunshine, blue skies, 75 degrees, with a slight breeze that had just a hint of coolness. On a scale of 1-10, yesterday's weather was a 10.
We had plans to go to the Seafair parade in downtown Seattle. It's a huge parade and my company is the biggest sponsor. It's called the "Alaska Airlines Seafair Torchlight Parade". Since I hate huge crowds and this event draws thousands of people, I've managed to avoid it for the 23 years we've lived here. Every year my husband asks me if we can go, and every year, being the selfish brat that I am, I say 'NO, you know I hate crowds and that's the last thing I want to do!". For some reason this year I agreed to go. I've had my way for 23 years, I figured it wouldn't kill me to go one year (never again, by the way!).
Back to the bike ride....
I decided to ride down to the mall on the BPA trail, it's the one I do all the time because the trailhead is only 1/4 mile from my house. It's a 5-mile, one-way paved trail. It's a great cardio workout biking 10 miles with a few killer hills in there. Emphasis on "killer". I got to the mall with no problems, bought a couple cute tops, one to wear to the parade, and then headed home.
I was heading down one really steep hill, thinking how much I totally love biking. I especially like going down long, steep hills on my way home because I remember how tough they were going the other way. It's like my reward. I have slowed down quite a bit since they posted 20 mph signs on the trail, but I still go too fast.
As I was starting down this one particular hill where I can see for at least 1/2 mile, I wanted to turn up the volume on my iPod. It was a great song (can't remember what it was, but a current favorite). I was probably going about 15 mph when I reached down to mess with the iPod's volume when I lost control of my bike.
I can't remember exactly what happened, other than I literally flipped in the air with my right hand holding onto my bike, trying to get control. My head smacked against the pavement, I could hear and feel the plastic of my helmet hit the pavement hard. I remember thinking at that moment, I might die.
I took my left hand and reached behind me to try andbreak my fall before my head hit, but with all my weight and the weight of the bike, my wrist couldn't stop it. After my head hit, my left shoulder and elbow hit. I was wearing a tank top and my skin was shaved off my shoulder and my left elbow.
I still can't figure out what happened to my legs, they both got entangled in the bike. Both of them have terrible bruises.
The only people were down at the opposite end of the hill. I don't know if they saw me, but no one came running to help. Now the funny thing. Even though I was in complete agony, my first thought (after "is anything broken?"), was my BodyMedia. It was on my left arm which hit the hardest: was it broken? It's not broken but it got scraped up pretty bad. Thankfully, it still works.
My bike chain had come off, but I got it back on. My bike seat that was a special, nicely padded $40 bike seat is has a huge slice horizontal slice in it, so it needs to be replaced. My bike bell has the lever broken off and the odometer is missing. I guess it fell off but I didn't notice (this is the second one I've lost and at $30 a pop, I think I'm done with the odometers).
I called my husband to come get me at the next street intersection, about a mile away. My wrist hurt so bad that I thought it might be broken. I managed to ride my bike to that street, although it was making a terrible clicking sound and my left wrist was killing me (I thought it might be broken).
My husband met me within a few minutes of me getting to the street. He came with an ice pack and a towel for the blood I guess, but I really wasn't bleeding that bad. I guess when I called him I scared the crap out of him because I was crying and said I was in a lot of pain.
After a inspecting my injuries, we decided I didn't need to go to the doctor. My wrist is sprained pretty bad, but it's not broken. We went to the parade where there were literally thousands of people on the streets waiting for the parade to start. Luckily we had been smart enough to purchase VIP bleacher seats so we didn't have to stand around with the masses. Just getting to the bleachers was agony as people kept bumping into my left shoulder and arm.
We found a drugstore and bought a couple of those instant ice packs and a soft wrist brace. That and the two Vicodin I took got me through the agony of my throbbing wrist, while watching the parade. Actually, it wasn't that bad and my husband enjoyed it. We were sitting next to a really nice lady that was super excited that her 13-year old daughter's drill team was in the parade. It was 2 1/2 hours long, but it wasn't as awful as I expected. Personally, I think our little Golden Days parade in Fairbanks is a lot more fun, but then when I go to that one it's with all my family and we have a blast together.
Anyway, I'm surviving. My wrist is still hurting and swollen up a lot, but the Vicodin is really helping. Typing hurts, so I don't know how work will go tomorrow. I guess weight lifting is out of the question for a while, and I'll probably delay joining my other gym for a week or so, or until my wrist heals. Oh well, such is life.
BodyMedia Update
I LOVE my BodyMedia! This is the coolest thing I've ever bought to help with my weight loss. I could write about it for hours, singing it's praises, but I'm going to be brief because I'm quickly losing my ability to stay awake (Vicodin), and my wrist is killing me. The good news is that I'm down to 189. I credit this to a couple things, number one is my BodyMedia, and number two is the bit of nutrition advice my personal trainer gave me. He's not really "my" personal trainer. I just have him two sessions with him at my new gym.
The nutrition advice that really seems to have made a difference is cutting out most carbs and all sugars (including fruit) after about 4pm. I can't believe how my body is reacting to this. I started doing this on Tuesday, when I had my training session and got this tip, and it's five days later without a single binge. It hasn't even been hard. I just don't think much about it.
I also gave up my thinwich, Canadian bacon,2% cheese, egg breakfast sandwich for a fruit/spinach protein shake after my morning workouts. As Gagan explained, the fat in that sandwich slowed down the absorption of the nutrients by my muscles. After a hard cardio workout I need to get the nutrients in my body as quickly as possible. I'm not sure if that's factual or not, but it makes snese. Since it's helping me lose weight, I'm going to keep on doing it.
First, here's a picture of yesterday's stats from my BodyMedia:
What's really cool is that each one of these items expand and you can view it in detail. Check out my sleep:
One more picture, of the meals section. Since I started using this three days ago I've added every bite I've eaten into their meal tracker. It's about 100 times easier to use than the Weight Watchers tracker. Plus, it breaks down all the nutrients you're eating, as well as the percentage of protein, carbs and fat. Points are okay I guess, but this has a lot more detail and it's a lot easier to use. I just love it!
You'll notice I only had 983 calories yesterday. That's because of the bike accident. Normally I'm eating around 1300-1500. Considering I burned 3114 calories yesterday, that is definitely not enough food!
One last picture, of one of my bruises from my bike crash. I can't believe I'm showing you all my fat thigh, but you've got to see this:
And my poor shoulder:
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Posted by: Tukiyooo
Bike crash & BodyMedia update Updated at :
9:35 AM
Sunday, July 31, 2011
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