56th ride of 2019 - Tuesday, 7/9/2019
2019 mileage: 2471.7
Today, for scheduling reasons, I rode early again, leaving at 7:00 a.m. (in 59° conditions that climbed to 74° by the time I finished) to ride another round trip to Baker Rd., which netted me 20.2 miles in 2:29. Two aspects of the ride were worthy of comment.
First, about 4 miles into my ride, a little north of the point where Stadium Blvd. turns its westward route from Michigan Stadium into a northwesterly heading, there is one of those dastardly places where the sidewalk does not directly cross a road at an intersection, but instead winds into a sinuous S curve on either side of the road. This happens where Stadium and Suffolk intersect, and it occurs on a downhill stretch of Stadium that allows me to pick up some speed. I've never had a problem there before, but today I evidently failed to slow sufficiently, and rolled the trike, slamming the lower portion of my left rib cage into the cement curb. A passing runner asked in great concern, "Are you OK? Can I do anything to help?" But I waved her off, and am convinced that by keeping moving, it helped me, keeping the spot from stiffening up. Now, more than 2 hours later, though, it is still quite tender, though I'm certain nothing was broken.
I'm tempted to ask, in exasperation, "Why do they DO that?" But I'm sure that the answer is to prevent cyclists or runners from crossing that spot blindly and too speedily.
The following picture, which I stopped to take on the way home, shows the intersection from the way I approached it on my outbound ride early this morning. Dodging the fire hydrant was, of course, yet another issue.
And then second was the fulfillment of a plan I made last night. My daughter Christy lives quite near to the McDonald's by the intersection of Jackson and Baker Rds., where I turn around to head back to Ann Arbor. So I contacted her to see if she'd like to have breakfast together, and we had a lovely visit.
Today, for scheduling reasons, I rode early again, leaving at 7:00 a.m. (in 59° conditions that climbed to 74° by the time I finished) to ride another round trip to Baker Rd., which netted me 20.2 miles in 2:29. Two aspects of the ride were worthy of comment.
First, about 4 miles into my ride, a little north of the point where Stadium Blvd. turns its westward route from Michigan Stadium into a northwesterly heading, there is one of those dastardly places where the sidewalk does not directly cross a road at an intersection, but instead winds into a sinuous S curve on either side of the road. This happens where Stadium and Suffolk intersect, and it occurs on a downhill stretch of Stadium that allows me to pick up some speed. I've never had a problem there before, but today I evidently failed to slow sufficiently, and rolled the trike, slamming the lower portion of my left rib cage into the cement curb. A passing runner asked in great concern, "Are you OK? Can I do anything to help?" But I waved her off, and am convinced that by keeping moving, it helped me, keeping the spot from stiffening up. Now, more than 2 hours later, though, it is still quite tender, though I'm certain nothing was broken.
I'm tempted to ask, in exasperation, "Why do they DO that?" But I'm sure that the answer is to prevent cyclists or runners from crossing that spot blindly and too speedily.
The following picture, which I stopped to take on the way home, shows the intersection from the way I approached it on my outbound ride early this morning. Dodging the fire hydrant was, of course, yet another issue.
And then second was the fulfillment of a plan I made last night. My daughter Christy lives quite near to the McDonald's by the intersection of Jackson and Baker Rds., where I turn around to head back to Ann Arbor. So I contacted her to see if she'd like to have breakfast together, and we had a lovely visit.
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