Meeting Concrete

Over the past few seasons I have used Meridian, much to the chagrin of many a seasoned veteran (at least those seasoned on the Teton forum), as a training ride. Prior to a time trial it is great for opener type efforts and for regular training you can get in quite the interval workout with the motivation being that the ass baskets chasing might catch you. The usual practice is attack, recover, attack, recover, repeat. This minimizes time riding in a group of so so bike handlers, knobs riding aero bars (saw one clown wearing a sleeveless jersey with arm warmers, I kid you not), over amped masters riders unnecessarily fighting for a wheel, etc. It's not that I have anything against said types, but when their equipment becomes flotsam and jetsam in a crash that I cannot successfully avoid . . .

Rear end, meet concrete, concrete, rear end. I don't have quite the padding I used to back in my younger days and bouncing on your bum doesn't really feel so good. It was one of those falls where as soon as I made contact with the ground, I knew it was going to smart a bit. I also knew it was a good idea to try to get back on my bike as quickly as possible before post crash stiffness set in. I noodled around until the group came by, jumped back in, rode around until the last lap and put in one last effort to open up for the time trial tomorrow.

When I got home I could feel the areas I was sure would have a bruise within the next day or so. There are just some muscles you can't seem to stretch out and loosen after a fall. We'll see how this one works out for me.