good friday turned bad

so last Friday, the 10th, was the start of a beautiful long weekend. Easter weekend to be exact. so on that Good Friday i thought i'd get out and do at least a 20 km ride today. i didn't have time to put on all the goodies you saw in the previous post. but i did want to try out the clip shoes. so i screwed the SPD clips to the shoes and practiced attaching them to the pedals while stationary. and practiced getting out of them stationary. no problem, no sweat, i got this. for those of you that haven't seen clip shoes before, here are mine (pic on right). there's different types and shapes of clips you can get depending on the brand, but these are my Shimano brand ones.

next, was to practice getting in an out of them while riding on the bike. so i did a lap around the block... in, out, in, out, in, out. ok... not bad, i can get the hang of this. you kinda have to put the front part in first then put some pressure down on the ball of you foot, and listen for that "click" noise. in order to get out you need to twist your heel either outwards or inwards so the pedal releases the clip. ok... i'm good to go.

i hit the first traffic light, i come to a stop alongside all the other cars, and after all that practice what's the one important thing that i forget?!.... THAT I HAVE FRIKKEN CLIP SHOES ON!!! i go to put my foot down when i stop... waitaminute, my foot's not coming out!... i'm starting to fall!.... BOOM! i land on my left side with my elbow taking the brunt of the damage. OW! i've fallen enough in snowboarding to know not to extend my arm and hand to cushion my fall as that's a sure way to break your wrist or collarbone. i get up quickly and dust myself off. i take a glance at the minivan beside me... the whole family staring at me. they had this expression on their face like they were going to laugh but wanted to make sure i was ok first. LOL. i don't know what hurt more... my elbow, or my pride. i coulda easily have turned around and headed back home. but i was a trooper and continued on my ride. too funny now that i look back on it.

here's the route i took:


there's a ravine close to my place that has some great bike trails. the official name is the West Nose Creek Park. i tried to go as far down the trail along Deerfoot as i could but my elbow started to really hurt so i turned around once i reached McKnight. all in all the ride was almost 25km. and it took about 1:30 if i cut out all my wrong turns and being lost - lol.

on my way home i noticed blood on my shirt by my waist, wtf?! i got home and checked my elbow... i was actually bleeding! the pic below looks worse than it is. that was how it looked when i took off my arm warmer. it was basically a gash from some of the gravel i fell on. an embarassing reminder of my first experience with clip shoes *shakes head in shame*.