55th ride of 2019 - Monday, 7/8/2019
2019 mileage: 2431.5
This morning, for scheduling reasons I left early again, beginning at 7:00 (in 59* conditions that climbed to 74° by the time I finished), and rode an9ther round trip to Baker Rd., covering 20.2 miles in 2:29. Today's ride had two aspects worthy of comment.
First, I experienced another "adventure." About 4 miles into my ride, at a point a little north of where Stadium Boulevard makes a bend, to take it from its westerly heading from Michigan Stadium to a northwest direction, there is a nice downhill stretch that always allows me to pick up some speed. At the intersection of Stadium and Suffolk is one of those dastardly places where, instead of the sidewalk going straight across, they route into it a sinuous S curve just before the intersection, on both sides; I'm tempted to ask, in exasperation, "Why do they do that?" But, upon reflection, I'm sure that the answer is to prevent cyclists or runner from crossing there blindly and with an excess of speed.
I've never experienced trouble there before, but today I evidently didn't slow down sufficiently, and ended up rolling the trike and slamming the lower part of my left rib cage into the cement curb. A runner passing by asked me, in great concerting, "Are you OK? Can I do anything to help?" It hurt terribly, and is still tender now, over 2 hours later, but I waved her off and kept on riding, and in fact I'm sure that the continued motion was helpful in keeping it from stiffening up. The following picture, which I stopped and took on the way home, shows the intersection from the way I approached it. Dodging the fire hydrant was, of course, another concern.
The other thing worthy of comment was the fulfillment of a plan I made last night. My daughter Christy lives not far from the McDonald's near the intersection of Jackson and Baker Rds. (where I turn around to return to Ann Arbor), so I contacted her to ask if she'd like to meet for breakfast. We had a lovely visit together, following which she continued on to work, and I kept pedaling.
This morning, for scheduling reasons I left early again, beginning at 7:00 (in 59* conditions that climbed to 74° by the time I finished), and rode an9ther round trip to Baker Rd., covering 20.2 miles in 2:29. Today's ride had two aspects worthy of comment.
First, I experienced another "adventure." About 4 miles into my ride, at a point a little north of where Stadium Boulevard makes a bend, to take it from its westerly heading from Michigan Stadium to a northwest direction, there is a nice downhill stretch that always allows me to pick up some speed. At the intersection of Stadium and Suffolk is one of those dastardly places where, instead of the sidewalk going straight across, they route into it a sinuous S curve just before the intersection, on both sides; I'm tempted to ask, in exasperation, "Why do they do that?" But, upon reflection, I'm sure that the answer is to prevent cyclists or runner from crossing there blindly and with an excess of speed.
I've never experienced trouble there before, but today I evidently didn't slow down sufficiently, and ended up rolling the trike and slamming the lower part of my left rib cage into the cement curb. A runner passing by asked me, in great concerting, "Are you OK? Can I do anything to help?" It hurt terribly, and is still tender now, over 2 hours later, but I waved her off and kept on riding, and in fact I'm sure that the continued motion was helpful in keeping it from stiffening up. The following picture, which I stopped and took on the way home, shows the intersection from the way I approached it. Dodging the fire hydrant was, of course, another concern.
The other thing worthy of comment was the fulfillment of a plan I made last night. My daughter Christy lives not far from the McDonald's near the intersection of Jackson and Baker Rds. (where I turn around to return to Ann Arbor), so I contacted her to ask if she'd like to meet for breakfast. We had a lovely visit together, following which she continued on to work, and I kept pedaling.
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