Stationary Crash

So I fell off my bike last night. Off my bike that was stationary on my trainer. Actually, I suppose to be more precise, I should say that my bike fell off the trainer, and I happened to be on it at the time.

I was on my new tri bike, which I have put on the trainer without issue twice before, and was only about 8 minutes into my almost hour-long session. Suddenly, I felt myself shifting. Amazingly, my brain processed what was happening very quickly. Things went into slow motion. “I’m falling,” I thought. And so I was.

As you can see in this photo from a year and a half ago, my apartment is pretty tiny, and my bike is set up between a chair and the coffee table. I fell to the left, and so it actually wasn’t too much of a disaster. My left hip landed on the coffee table, and my reaction was quick enough that I was able to catch myself with my left arm. My left foot came out of the pedal, but my right foot remained clipped in. One side of the trainer ended up stuck between the spokes of my rear wheel, but upon removing it and inspecting it closely, there does not appear to be any damage. No damage to the bike, yes, but I did not escape the fall totally unscathed, and I now have a bruise on both sides of my left knee — one from hitting the table, and one from the bike hitting me!

I quickly figured out the culprit. One side of the rear skewer that I thought was a metal cap that screwed onto the end of the skewer to hold it in place is actually just a plastic cap covering a very small metal nut. It was only a matter of time, it seems, before I fell off, since obviously the plastic was not capable of holding the load of the bike plus me. A quick trip to the garage to retrieve a different skewer remedied the problem, and I was riding again within 10 minutes.

All in all, a funny story, although the bike ride itself was not good. I felt totally worn out and lacking energy. My usual plan on the trainer is to pull up an hour-long show on the Tivo, and cycle hard through the commercials as intervals. After the first commercial break, I could not maintain it. I tried to cycle hard through the remaining breaks, but I kept on having to use lower and lower gears. I was pooped, so I stopped at 15 miles, or just shy of 55 minutes. (I recently got around to installing the Garmin speed/cadence sensor, and now in addition to cadence, which I never had before, I can also get speed and distance even when I am indoors.) I spent the rest of the night in a funk because I felt fat, slow, and tired. Ah well. Just one of those days.

In other athletic news, my name was not drawn in the NYC marathon lottery. This is actually an ok thing, since I will be in Japan the same weekend that the marathon takes place! This is year #2 that I have not gotten in. One more year of rejection and I get an automatic spot. If I don’t get in next year, I’ll be automatic to get in for 2010. I’d really like to run this race sometime, so I’ll keep playing the lottery! Congratulations to June, who did get in this year. I know how badly she wanted it, so I was very happy to see “accepted” next to her name. She’s gonna do great.