Bike Crash

So this weekend was a painful one. On Saturday I did a 6.5 mile run, followed by a 2.5 hour bike ride, at least I was supposed to do 2.5 hours. On my very, very last 1.5 miles, I skidded into some gravel and completely fell off of my bike. I got up and saw blood dripping everywhere. I touched my chin and blood was gushing out. I was on a road that is not often traveled, so was concerned what I would do. Not too long after, a car drove by, with two very good-looking men who stopped to help. They gave me a towel to lie on and pulled out a cell phone since I couldn't think straight enough to use mine. I ended up completely blacking out and dropped the phone. I feel really badly about that...but I came to and one of them called my parents, which of course they didn't answer. The men drove off and I'm left sitting on the side of the road. I tried to stand up and everytime I did, everything went black. So I just lied on the towel on the road for about 5-10 minutes till I could see straight again.

I realized that I am still bleeding and needed to get somewhere quickly. The one way I could get to my parent's house, which is where I was biking, was to just get back on my bike and bike home. So with my shirt all bloodied and still dripping blood, I left a trail 1.5 miles long of blood. I got back and think I went into shock. I got nauseated and had blood all over my parents' garage.

They said my cuts were so deep I would need stitches. I've never had stitches in my life.

So we drove to Urgent Care only to be told there's nothing they can do for me and just to go straight to the hospital. They offered to call an ambulance, but we just drove. I got to the hospital and had to have stitches in my chin and knee and I sprained my wrist.

It is not pretty. I have lacerations all over my arms, legs, knee and face...not to mention my arm brace for my sprained wrist.

What a bad day. I feel like I have been seriously beaten up.

I couldn't even watch the end of the Tour de France. Seeing all those bikers get to ride in Paris as I sat on my bed unable to move an inch.

Morning

Woke up early this morning to thunder and lightening and then rain. It has been quite a while since I have seen rain and now in 108 degrees, the rain has caused the air to become quite stifling. Humidity does exist in the desert.

My swim session was canceled of course due to the lightening. So now must swim and run tonight.

I have been up since 4am from the thunder and my room lighting up like a strobe light. I am now very tired.

Weekend

This weekend I participated in the Arizona Road Racers Series. I came in 10th out of 41 in my age group. Not great, but it was really, really hot. I left my house at 5:45 am and it was already hot. It has been 115 almost everyday for a few weeks now.

After I finished, I spent about 10 minutes recovering and then set off for a long run which I finished at 9:00am dying of heat.

I also completed a 3 hour slow bike ride this weekend.

Changing Hands bookstore, my favorite bookstore, held a publishing seminar on Saturday that I attended after my running.

I didn't do the Mountain Man triathlon. I am trying to save money and that would have meant a long drive with gas and a hotel stay, not to mention registration fees. I will be doing a lot more races this fall, so I am keeping my money in the bank.

I am also planning on getting braces on July 28th. I've had the molds done and probably will get them, unless something drastic happens. This will surely put a damper on my social life. I'm only supposed to wear them for 6 months, so that's not too bad.

On Friday I read my horoscope, which I do once in a while for fun, I don't believe in it, but this one said "An old flame returns, step back and then come out ahead." Well, this weekend I saw an old flame, not the one I thought would return, but I did see one. Trying to get over that fact.

Miami Social

I watched a new reality show on the Bravo TV network last night called Miami Social. It was just a train wreck. George has weird facial ticks, Ariel thinks he is hot and Katrina was on the Apprentice Season 1. These are crazy people! It's just a weird mix of random people and I can't see any plot lines developing. It seems super staged, not that most reality shows aren't staged, but this even more so. I'm not feeling this show, which is too bad because I like Miami.

Oh, and Hardy sounds just like Greg from the show Dharma and Greg. He looks like a mix between the actor who played Greg and the actor who wears the bow ties on Gossip Girl.

Michael Phelps I am not

I had a breakthrough in swimming today. We did a lot of kicking with my group and the coach used me as an example. I am never used as an example for anything. Ever. So it made me feel good, but as soon as we added the stroke, I fell behind. So clearly it's my stroke holding me back. The coach then had me breathe every 3 strokes, so I was breathing on both sides and my stroke count went down 6 strokes per 50 meters. I wasn't faster, but I was doing less work. I'll take it.

Headaches

I've had one too many headaches lately. When I was in Utah on Sunday evening after a beautiful day in heavenly Park City shopping and sharing the relaxed lifestyle of the Park City elite, I was driving back down the canyon into Salt Lake and my vision started to go. I knew right away a migraine was coming. When I get migraines I lose my vision for a while and then the pain starts. The vision started going away, while I was driving mind you, down a canyon, and I got nervous. I drove as quickly as I could without completely breaking the law to a grocery store to buy the most powerful medicine I could find and took over the maximum limit of pills as to hopefully put me into an Excedrine-induced coma. Unfortunately, that amount of pill popping didn't do the trick. I laid in total pain till about 3am when I was finally able to close my eyes and fall semi-asleep. At 6:30am I woke up, wide awake and still had a migraine.

My family was killing me this weekend. Slowly and surely. My grandmother's Alzheimer's mixed with a little dose of senility = a deadly combination.

I did enjoy the heat reprieve because when my plane touched down, hot hair came straight to burn my bones. I could actually see the air from the plane. It was steaming hot. I think the windows of the plane were fogging up.

Now it was my car's turn for a headache. I had trouble with my car since I got back from my 4th of July weekend and it finally gave way. It completely overheated and started steaming. I had to quickly shut it off and mysteriously a AAA van just happened to be in the same parking lot as I...what are the odds? Heaven sent. Well, turns out that my hood wouldn't open because it was stuck, so all he said to me was "good luck" and drove off. Boo hoo! My dad and brother came to my rescue from my overheated car and were able to pop the hood. Perhaps they should get a job with AAA. I got it to the mechanic the very next day, but having to drive in 107 degrees with no air-conditioning. Yeah me. Fortunately, the mechanic was able to fix it, it just hurt my credit card $335. My poor credit card, my poor car, my poor body driving in desert heat with no AC. But it is fixed and the air conditioning blows cold. It better blow cold, that's some expensive AC.

This weekend was hard core workouts. I got up at 4:30am to beat the heat with my friends from Racelab. We swam in Saguaro Lake with many bees who spent the morning trying to mate with my bike. After a 45 minute open water swim, we biked a little over 30 miles into an Indian reservation. Then I ran 5 miles in 110. It got up to 115that day and broke a record. Now it's time for my poor dehydrated muscles to hurt and a dehydration headache to start. Then I had a 12 mile run the next day at 4:30am and a swim session in the outdoors. Tomorrow I have a swim session at 6am and a run with my group at 7pm. Two workouts outdoors in the heat. Just kill me now. I'm already living in hell. If you kill me now, I won't have far to travel and maybe I wouldn't have to get up so early to workout.

Headaches, headaches, headaches.

4th of July

I have enjoyed a beautiful 4th of July weekend in Salt Lake City. I started off by arriving Friday afternoon and taking a nap. Friday morning, a holiday, I met my group at swim practice at 6am and then did Saturday's workout on Friday: an over 2 hour bike ride and 40 minute run.

But then on the plane I could relax. I then went over to visit my uncle and cousins.

Saturday, I actually shopped, which is not one of my favorite activities, but I love the Gateway in downtown Salt Lake. It is an outdoor shopping mall complete with fountains and a theater. Saturday evening I went to my aunt's house in Magna and saw all my mom's side of the family. I ate too much and made myself sick, but that's the way it should be...consuming too much picnic food and cake and ice cream. I then went over to my uncle's house where my cousin light off fireworks in the street. Coming from the heat of the unbearable desert, Utah is a welcomed reprieve.

I also went to Park City and enjoyed a beautiful arts festival and all the lovely outdoors people Utah brings.

My grandmother suffers from Alzheimer's and is very forgetful, but also very mean. I don't think there is a filter from her brain to her mouth now. So I have endured a weekend of "What's wrong with you? Why can't you get a man?" "What's wrong with you? Why aren't you married?" My grandfather asked "Have you been in the paper lately?" I said no, and my grandmother yelled "Why? What's wrong with you?" It's like a broken record. I usually take her out shopping, but I just can't handle it anymore. I left to go running at Brighton High School, one of my favorite places to run, as it has a view of all of Salt Lake, just to get away from the house. My grandfather can't hear, so everything has to be yelled and repeated and repeated. Ohhh, growing older must be hard.