Ya gotta respect the lava. It is unyielding, spiky, dangerous stuff. I've heard many lava pain stories, involving cracked bones and shredded tendons. So as I was grinding up one of the lava field climbs, and the way through began narrowing, the fear of flesh-ripping should I lose momentum and tip over caused me to unclip a foot as I neared the top corner. On the other side, a short slope descending into much smoother stuff. So I pushed off, planning to clip back in after I'd rolled the last bit of lava chunks. And then without warning, my front wheel jammed into a depression between two rocks, and I began a slow but certain pivoting over that front wheel, powerless to stop it as one foot was still clipped in. All I could do was brace for impact, as my body arced over the front and slammed hard into the even harder surface.
Several intense points of pain as I untangled myself from the bike. Right knee gashed nicely on the outside - not too much blood, but a view of white tissue through the rent skin. Left hand throbbing, but only sprained. Right pinkie finger flaring in pain - possibly cracked (those things break easy), but still able to flex it. Hmm, only 15 minutes into the ride, what should I do ? All injuries appear to be superficial - the knee is most problematic, but pain is minimal as is the bleeding, and it seems biomechanically sound. So all I've got here is a sh!$#@!load of pain - so I can keep riding - it's just mind over matter, right ? So on I go. The left hand is the only thing really painful, which I don't get, since it seems to work OK. I stop and peel off the glove - OK there's the problem, a large flap of skin has separated from the palm. Doesn't look too bad - keep going.
Manage to fight through it and actually have a good time, though I'm more tentative on the technical sections which is not good. Finally after an hour or so, the knee starts throbbing. I have to get off the bike for numerous bridge crossings, and walking on it is very painful. Hmmm, maybe it is more than superficial ? Soon the pain is traveling up to my hip. Starting to get concerned now - maybe I've nicked a tendon or something. Finally after an hour and a half of this, I decide to turn back. Blah, blah, the pain gets worse and worse. Soon I'm mostly pedalling with one leg. Back at the car, down a couple of Ibuprofin [hmm, maybe should keep some of this stuff in my pack - what's that thing you're supposed to carry around - a Primary Helper Kit or something ?]. OK, let's drive to the clinic I guess, for some bodywork. It's an hour drive, and the vitamin-I has kicked in nicely. The clinic is empty and I get first-class service. The knee gets stitched up - after the doc spends a while extracting dirt and small rocks from the wound - let's add bandages to the Kit next time too. Finger is X-rayed and not broken. Palm is cleaned out (ouch), and taped up.
Pic one week later :
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OK lessons learned :
1) This one I already knew, but unfortunately made exceptions to : don't one-foot it through possibly dangerous crap - just walk the bike onto level ground before remounting
2) Ibuprofin - a few of these in the pack would've been good for another 20 miles easy
3) Bandages. Ok pain you can take - a minor bloody wound isn't going to kill you. But inviting dirt and other crap into your body with the broken seal of an open wound is not good.
That's it. Only 1 day off. I was lucky, or unlucky as it were.
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Pictures?
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