I was finishing the last training ride of the week. It was a beautiful late September day, the weather perfect, and the fall leaves coming in. I was in the culmination of one of the best training weeks of my life. Never before had I been able to combine so much intensity, duration, and fatigue into a short time and still successfully complete each training ride.

A few things were different:

• I was using Bucked Up Endurance Mix and Warm-Up mix. The warm up mix was incredible. Even when I was tired as soon as the warm-up mix kicked in I was able to kick it into gear.
• I was getting SUPER consistent and QUALITY sleep. I was asleep by 10 pm most nights and would wake up at around 6:30/7. This 8.5-9 hours of sleep allowed my body to recover quickly and optimize the gains and adaptations from previous training.
• I was also using Bucked Up Recovery mix and creatine powder. This was also a crucial element in performing well because I was able to get more protein into the system than I was previously. This, in addition to my sleep, allowed me to recovery faster, allowing me to ride strong again day after day.

This particular Saturday evening training session involved several sets of 6 minutes intervals followed by a few sets of 30/30’s. I was on my way home and absolutely hammering the 30/30’s, knowing the next day was a rest day. I wanted to get everything from the training session that I could. I was in my second set, and about 7 intervals in. The hill began to go down, and I stayed focused on keeping my power numbers above 500 wats for the 30 seconds. I was going 30 mph down this descent staring at my bike computer when I was suddenly in what felt like a green-whirlind. Or perhaps a washing machine full of green clothes. I then made a painful impact with the asphalt and slid 25-30 feet. I screamed.

Unsure of the damage done, I eased myself back to my feet and observed my kit which looked like a grizzly had been eating a Salmon through it. In my pain, I did a mental body scan, looking for any sharp pains in my bones. Thankfully nothing appeared to be broken, but wow was I in pain. I’ve never been thrown in a fire before, but what I imagine it feels like was the only thing I could relate to.

As I was whimpering/assessing a wonderful family came running from their backyard. They mostly spoke spanish, so I spoke with them the best I could as they asked if they should call an ambulance. I told them that I was okay, but I clearly wasn’t. I called my roommates and they started to drive over. The family gave me bottles of water, Benadryl, and started spraying me with abrasion spray which made it feel like the fire was turned up about 1,000 degrees.

As we were were sitting on the side of the road, another lady on a walk came by and assessed the damage done. She thought she could see my bone. At this point I had my dad on the phone and she talked to him and told him I needed to go to the hospital.

My roommates shortly arrived afterward and they took me to the E.R. It was a painful night. For the next 90 minutes nurses dug gravel out of my body and cleaned me up.

Thankfully after X-rays, they were able to confirm no broken bones.

The training was able to begin as soon as the pain was reasonable enough to be able to push watts. Three days later I got on the bike, but my left leg was useless to I decided to keep resting.

The healing process was somewhat difficult and frustrating. I was told to keep all the wounds covered and to replace them all three times a day. With so much of my body injured it initially took over an hour to switch all of my bandages. And it was an extremely painful experience.

But each day it got a little bit better, and my comfort increased as my range of motion improved.

On Friday I was able to get back on the bike and start training again! This training led to a couple of successful races in North Carolina a few weeks later. More on that next time!