Bicycle Safety

This is a public service announcement.  I want to share some bicycle safety tips because I obviously wasn't using these tips yesterday when I went out for my ride.

It was a gorgeous morning as my cycling buddy and I head out for a nice ride.  We were almost 4 miles out when we came up to a busy intersection near Fair Oaks Hospital.  As we rolled up to stop, I did what I always have done since I got my clip petals on my bicycle.  I unclip my right shoe off the pedal and lean to the right.  I ALWAYS do this.  I have done this a million times and haven't had a problem.

Flashback to when I bought the pedals this spring.  The guy at the store said, it's best to unclip both feet.  I said, I ALWAYS stop with my right foot down.  It's automatic and I don't see why I would need to unclip both feet.  He said trust me, do it.  You will forget the other foot is clipped in at some point and you will fall.  He said when you fall, it most likely will be at a busy intersection where a ton of cars are sitting there staring at you.

Flash forward to yesterday...Not heeding the important advice of a well trained cyclist, I unclipped my right foot, went to reach for the crosswalk button as I'm chatting away mindlessly to my cycling buddy when all of the sudden my life went into slow motion.  I don't know what happened but I lost my balance and without my left foot loose, I couldn't catch myself as I fell over on my left side.  Who knew that I could get scratched this much for such an "easy" fall.

As the cycling shop guy predicted,  everyone at the light was staring at my stupid ass laying on the path going, what just happened?  Of course my cycling buddy was very sweet and worried..I get up and I'm fine--leg is scraped but not bad.  She says, wow, you are quiet when you fall.  HAHA.  I think because I was chatting all the way to the ground before I knew what was going on.

We keep riding because I am fine and we get to where there is a lot of construction on Fairfax County Parkway.  We have ridden here many times and I know there is a detour on the bike path.  But I was chatting away again and didn't notice the detour sign.

I realize my buddy is is going off to the right and for some reason, I'm not following the right arrow for the detour and I am going to the left.  I try to stop and AGAIN I only unclip my right foot and I skid on the gravel and fell on my left side, this time with momentum  Not good for the knee, the side of my leg that already is bloody and my hip/butt.  At this point, I am laughing because I have never fallen on the bike and in about a 30 minute time period, I have fallen twice.  The second time really hurt.

I picked the gravel off my leg and we rested for a couple a minutes because we are both stunned by the events at this point.

Still smiling after the second accident (you can see the caution cone holding the detour sign off to the side)
Luckily I had my jacket on, so it protected my elbows in the second fall.  Only slight road burn. 

Cut wrist--good reason to NOT wear a bracelet when cycling.  The clip on the bracelet dug into my skin good.

At this point, we are only about 6 miles out, so we decided that it really can't get much worse, so head down the road about 4 more miles to Reston Town Center and enjoyed some Starbucks outside. 

The ride back was very uneventful (thankfully!).  Washing the gravel out of the wounds when I got home was definitely not any fun and neither was cleaning it with hydrogen peroxide after.  Later in the after a beautiful huge bruise on my hip/butt formed around a 1/2 dollar sized road burn.  Good thing bathing suit season is over!

Back home in one piece!

Cycling Tips I learned Yesterday
**Unclip both feet when you come to a stop
**Don't let your conversation with your friend take precedent over paying attention to your surroundings
**When you see a detour sign, follow it
**Don't wear jewelry when cycling
**Remember, shit happens.  Laugh it off and keep going.

By the way, I decided to go to spin class this morning instead of biking outside.  It was a bit more safe!