A week later and still, iHurt.

Looks pretty nasty, doesn't it?

I was actually surprised when I went into the hospital and they decided to x-ray my wrist instead of my elbow. I guess they were able to determine that the injuries to my elbow were tissue only and not bone, but weren't so sure about the wrist.

The good news is that despite the size of this bruise (possibly the biggest I have ever had) it really doesn't hurt much anymore. More than anything what I notice is a loss of strength in the arm but that is due to the combination of this bruise and the one on my thumb. Otherwise, the arm is healing nicely.

My hip continues to give me grief though. I have a bruise on it also, but my biggest complaint is that I pulled something on the inside of my thigh so while I can walk comfortably (and ride, luckily) I cannot run at all without pain. This is the biggest area of concern I have right now because while I can still train, another wipeout will only make things so much worse. I figured that much out this afternoon when Holly and I were rushing to get off a bus and I mis-stepped, forcing me to catch myself with my sore leg. I pulled it again a bit, and it took about an hour to get back to 'normal'.

Oh, and I thought I would add a photo of the accident site, as I saw it. I was attempting to turn left here when I had to stop (too suddenly) to avoid hitting the truck that came out from that tunnel. Oh and let me just say again, thanks to the driver for stopping and being so helpful. I really appreciated it.

Wipeout

Nothing starts a day quite like an accident. As usual I was out for my morning ride, doing laps around Stanley Park. I was moving along the connecting road to start my second lap when it happened. Coming around a corner I noticed a truck approaching and I had to brake hard to avoid it, which, I did. What I did not do was control my breaking and weight distribution well enough to avoid going over the handlebars.

I hit the pavement hard enough to knock the wind out of me. This has only happened to me once or twice in my life so I recall noting the novelty of the experience. The other thing I remember thinking is wishing that all of this had been caught on video. Yes, I was thinking of how well it would do on youtube. The driver of the truck stopped and made sure that I was okay. He helped me off the street and offered me some water, which really helped to catch my breath. After about five minutes I felt a little banged up, but well enough to at least ride home. I thanked him for his assistance and got back on my bike (which doesn't seem to have any new scratches.)

I didn't go far without realizing that my right arm hurt more than the rest of me. Specifically, the bottom of my thumb (near the wrist) and near, but not quite at the tip of my elbow. I couldn't put much of my weight on the arm while riding so I figured I better get it checked out. But not before going home and getting cleaned up.

As it turns out, Friday morning at the Emergency Ward can sometimes be kind of quiet. I was lucky in that there wasn't much of a wait, although the way processing works I found that I still had ten to fifteen minutes to wait between each stop along the way.

The doctors wanted to take a couple x-rays of my wrist to be sure nothing was broken there. Once they confirmed that I had nothing more than a serious sprain, they sent me on my way.

Somehow I'm sure I will be paying more for this after a good night's sleep.

Riding with back pain

For the record, suffering from mild to moderate back pain has been a lifelong affliction. This is nothing new to me and to be honest, I am surprised that I went a few months on the bike without any problems at all. My back pain is directly attributed to the fact that I have an office job and haven't really spent a day in my life strengthening my stomach muscles. Add to that one weekend of lifting the dog incorrectly (not bending my knees) and you find me complaining around the house and office about a sore back.

However when I was out riding this morning I noted that my back felt fine while on the bike. Being able to support my weight with my arms helped to take a load off my back and it actually felt good riding. Sure, my wrists got sore quicker but that was a small annoyance more than anything else, especially since this was just a short early morning ride and not a marathon session.

So I won't complain. At least not much, and not too loudly. It's still a joy for me to be able to ride like this and when I look at how much the people I know have donated for this cause, well it feels good. Thanks again to everyone who chipped in, you all helped to propel me to over fourteen hundred dollars raised for cancer research - and this is before the anonymous donor makes a donation large enough to match what is raised. Truly exciting, at least for me. I just hope I didn't pester you too much!

The utility of cycling

Yep, that's right. I'm ordering pizza pick-up orders now instead of delivery. I can get to the pizzeria in under 5 minutes so it just doesn't make sense to wait a half hour to 45 minutes anymore. The 'za is still hot by the time I get back.

Of course, none of that matters when I get home and find out that what we have is not what we ordered. A quick call back to the store and I was off for a second trip to pick up a second pizza - this one free of charge, and this time made with the right ingredients. But hey, at least I'm getting the miles in on the bike, right? It's kind of like eating for free as I practically race home.

Not that I'm at a point where I am counting calories - unless it's something truly sinful like a DQ Blizzard or a hamburger and fries - if I'm going to go hog wild with junk food I will make informal calculations like 'it's probably going to take me thirty kms to burn this off.' But hey, if it keeps me motivated to spin the wheels, it's kind of justified, right?

Spring time cycling

Training for my ride to Seattle goes well. I no longer worry if I miss a day because I am feeling stronger when I do ride. When getting back into cycling it is typically your legs that tire first, then they strengthen up enough for you to lose your breath, then legs, etc.

I think I'm mostly through that. Now my endurance is measured more in terms of how many calories have I consumed for the ride, as that's another big factor in when you will become exhausted. If I'm going to ride long distances, I have to eat for it.

I got mail today from the organization putting on the Ride to Conquer Cancer and the envelope said 'IMPORTANT! Open Today.' I had no idea of what it could be, so I ripped open the envelope as fast as I could. All it had in it were two donation forms for me to pass out. To say I was underwhelmed was a bit of an understatement. I must have printed out dozens of those forms already, so this was hardly earth shattering. Still, I guess it was nice to have a couple extra forms.

All of this riding has me noticing a lot of the other bikes around town. There are a lot of really nice ones, like this one I saw parked at a church. Hey, even Catholics ride fixies I guess. Fixies, or fixed gear single speeds are insanely popular right now and I have to say I'm more than a little intrigued. I really like the clean lines and uncluttered look. I'm not really into some of the current trends like that extra narrow straight bar with the red grips, but that's just my taste.

One thing is for sure - I won't be riding a fixie to Seattle this year. That's just crazy talk.

Over $1000 Raised for Cancer!

I recently passed an important milestone with my Ride to Conquer Cancer - I have raised over $1,000! This is not counting the anonymous donor who has pledged to match the first $2,500 I raise. This puts me right on track to meet my fund raising goals before May 20th, which is roughly the cutoff date before the ride.

The other day I was talking to Tommy about my riding and when I told him how far I rode that day his response was 'Holy crap, that's like going to Richmond and back!' So I thought about it, mapped it out and was surprised to see how close Richmond really was. So this weekend, I set out to ride across Vancouver.

I didn't go all the way into Richmond but did go down to the park on Fraser River so it would have been a simple ride across the bridge to get there. I decided to ride around this part of town instead as we used to live here about five years ago now. The pink building pictured here is the spot we rented in - our place was on the bottom floor, hidden by the shrubberies and fence.

I used to go for a walk in the park by the river almost daily back then, and spent a fair amount of time bird watching. So it was a bit nostalgic to revisit the same place and find it relatively unchanged. It's still a great place to take dogs for a good run along the beach or to play fetch on the field.

On the way back I took the Granville Street bridge back into Downtown, which was kind of fun since it's all downhill from Broadway. Of course, I had to come to a stop to get into the pedestrian lane as I didn't feel like getting run over that day. As usual, the views from the height of the bridge were fantastic, and make me wish for a camera better equipped to capture what I see.

Back to the Ride to Conquer Cancer website for a minute: For those of you who chose to donate by using the mail in form, the donations DO get processed, it just seems to take quite a while before your name appears on the website. I have at least one person's name on my web page now that I know used the mail in form. So keep the donations coming, feel free to send people you may know to this website, or the one linked to from the Ride to Conquer Cancer logo in the right column here. Your donations do make a difference - a big one.

Taser Graffiti Controversy

So in my last post I displayed some local graffiti and just the other day I noticed that it was painted over. Not everybody appreciates art as social commentary I guess. For my part, I thought it was timely given the still-unfolding situation with the man who was killed by police at the Vancouver Airport by taser last year.

Undeterred, the unknown artist has found other methods of expression that are less likely to be covered up.

I'm just glad I noticed it.

This is also the time of year when Vancouver is filled with cherry blossoms. Some streets bloom earlier than others, but I tend to watch for the Burrard Skytrain station as it is filled with these trees. It is in full bloom now and was looking pretty good.

Oh, and Vancouver's new convention center finally opened. I get a pretty good look at that just about every day - at least the days I go biking or walk the dog along the sea wall in Coal Harbour. They had an open house that lasted two days and about 64,000 people dropped in to check it out. I like the grass roof but haven't figured out if that will be accessible to the public or not, as the sea wall around it is still under construction. Note that some of it is still dirt and not yet covered in sod. I wonder how big of a sprinkler system they have to keep it green.

Also, that white dome thing has been missing for the last day or two so I don't know if it is out for repairs, or not normally part of the building.

Overdue blog post

It has been raining a fair bit lately and that means I have not been out riding for a few days now. It feels weird and wrong at the same time, which I suppose is good since I should be training for my ride to Seattle.

I'm either going to have to invest in fenders and raingear, or start going to the community rec center to do some spinning on the wet days. I suspect the rec center might win out here.

So this photo is the state of Vancouver graffiti today. I smiled a bit when I first saw it, but in a bittersweet kind of way. I imagined the artist saying 'Too soon?' after putting it up.

In other news I saw another one of those eagle statues in a different part of downtown. I'm not one to stay in the loop for all things Vancouver, but this reminds me of those bear statues from a few years ago. I didn't get a good photo because I was accosted by a stuttering beggar who wanted... something. He wasn't very clear and I'm not a hundred percent sure if that helped or hurt his cause.