How not to ride a bike...

Last weekend was windy, blustery, nasty. In other words, a great day for a bike ride.

Had a nagging wobble somewhere in the drive train, so I dropped both wheels at the local shop for a true job. As in 'truing,' which is biker talk for adjusting tension on the spokes to make the wheel a circle again. The spokes attach the hub to the rim; if you don't have an equal pull on the spokes all the way around, your wheel is more like a square.

I drove back home, then got into my running gear for a trot to the local park and a group workout. On the way there, the blood sugar began to plummet, so I stopped at the bike shop for refueling. No cash, but a credit card on hand, so I paid for the repair work and bought some gels and stuff. Then I kept running to the park, figuring I'd retrieve the bike on the way home.

Arrive at the park. Hmmmmm....no group run. Of course, now it's raining. Canex the run (cancel) and get back to the bike shop.

And now the rain has turned to snow. Sideways snow. Meanwhile, the gel hasn't kicked in, and it's uphill to get home. But I'll take the shortcut through the woods.

Except the dirt trails are kinda muddy, and really soft, and some serious uphills. All of which means I dumped the bike in the slop. Being a committed rider, I have pedals with clips, and I can't get my foot out fast enough.

The dreaded slow-motion descent sideways into mud. Nice.

Next morning, time to resume my gym workouts with a 0545 spinning class. Of course, I have to leave the car at home and ride the bike to the gym.

Now I have a long and gradual downhill. With no cars on the road, I'm flying along.

Did I mention the rain had frozen on the roads overnight?

Black Ice added to high speed added to a traffic circle added to a loss of memory about where my brakes are equals lil' Nicky splattered across the road.

In this battle with asphalt, I lost...

Some nice road rash on left elbow and hip and ankle. I limp to the sidewalk and assess the rest of the equipment. My expensive lighting system doesn't work any more. Turns out the plugs yanked out of the battery pack. No harm, no foul.

So I take my spinning class looking like Rocky Balboa in Round 14. Blood dripping through my sock and all.

Two wipe-outs in two days. It doesn't get much better.