01 Feb Bike Accident

 I experienced my first ride to the ER in an ambulance.  I had a concussion, a broken nose,  a broken elbow, two bulged disks in my Cervical spine and lower back…and I was going to need surgery! …and time to heal.

A month later, I was back swimming. Then a month after that, I started to run. It didn’t really take me long to recover but I was still not able to ride.  The Doctor said it was too early for me to ride my bike and that it will probably take me another month before I get back on my bike. My arm had no strength at all. Every time I tried to stretch my arm, it felt like it wasn’t going to happen and when I tried to reach my left shoulder with my left hand, it was like a mission impossible! It did improve over time! I can’t fully stretch it 100% now but it is ok. I am thankful I came out of this alive! The doctor said: “You were lucky. I had another guy in the ER just a few days ago who had a bike accident. He didn’t make it. That helmet saved your life”

This was the day I fell off my bike:

HOW IT

HAPPENED!

April 2, 2014 – I woke up early in the morning to go for a short bike ride. I turned on my Strava to record my miles and off I went. I was a bit over 20 miles and already riding back home. About a half a mile after I turned right on Jefferson, I fell off my bike. A few seconds before I fell off, I saw what looked like a black water hose in between the bike lane. It was kind of a diagonal way between the bike lane. I knew I had to do something to try to avoid it but everything happened so fast that I just couldn’t do anything. I do remember thinking to move to the left to avoid touching it but I didn’t have the chance to even look back and check if a car was coming behind me. Moving to the right wasn’t an option. It was too narrow, so by the time I wanted to do something, it was too late. As soon as my front bike tire touched this black thing, (it ended up being a traffic counter. I will tell this other story later) the front tired slid and moved abruptly to the right. I stumbled and next thing I know, I was flying over my bike. I landed with my forehead on the asphalt. My whole body bent down from my neck down.  That is all I remember. When I woke up, I saw a lady and another person trying to help me. One of them asked me if I knew a phone number so they could call my family. I only remembered my house phone number (we have had this phone number for years) and I passed out again…lol When I opened my eyes again, I saw a lot of people around me. The firefighters and an ambulance were there. Then when my sister said my name, I turned my head to the left. Things do happen like in the movies! I saw my sister’s face but all around it was cloudy. I remember asking her: “como llegaste aqui?”  (How did you get here?)  Then the firefighters asked me if I knew what day it was…? I couldn’t remember. They also asked me if I felt my legs. I am glad I did! I guess they noticed I was a bit disoriented so they decided to take me in an ambulance to the ER. Once in the ER, I do remember that my left hip was hurting a lot. I thought I had broken my hip but I had X-Rays, a CT scan and thank God all was ok, except my left elbow. It needed surgery. My elbow was so swollen that they couldn’t do the surgery right away.

I had my surgery on April 17th.

I have to say that this accident did change me a bit but what didn’t change was the idea to continue with my goal.

I knew I had to get a bit stronger before taking on the challenge. I fully recovered in July but it wasn’t until September 17th that I started this challenge. I was hoping this time it was all going to go as planned.  The whole ordeal took me 1 year and 7 months. I was able to ride 100+ miles a week until I completed 8,761 miles… (on my mountain bike instead of using my road bike this time) You can check out my instagram to check out these rides!

THE AFTER MATH OF MY ACCIDENT AND

RIDING SO MANY MILES 

MY BODY WAS BREAKING DOWN…

“Talking about when your body gets tired. 😏 sometimes the heart needs to rest too! 😬 I took a week off after I rode 8,761 miles. Then the following three week, I started to swim and run. But the problem here was that I didn’t start swimming and running easy. 😬 I started running the bump and Grind (about 1,169 ft in elevation) I was pushing myself trying to run it on my way up and down. I also tried to swim 1:45 min like I used to. Well, I haven’t been using those muscles for a while so maybe that is why my body felt like it was going to break in little pieces?? O.o? Every part of my body was in pain. 😬 I didn’t want to walk nor even move! I seriously came home one day, laid down on my bed at 3:00PM and didn’t wake up until next day! 😬
This week, I just started to run and swim again. 🙂 Easy does it! 👍🏼 By the way, my eye healed fast! 😉 I still have a few dr. Appointments (regular check ups due to my bike accident) and once that is out of my head, then the fun will begin. I hope!”

March 20th, 2016 – This is how I felt  the after riding all those miles… and it was probably the after math of my accident too. I really didn’t feel like doing triathlons ever again! My neck and lower back started to ache and felt a bit stiff every morning. I wasn’t feeling motivated to wake up early mornings to train. I tried everything…acupuncture, physical therapy, massage…you name it! These only helped relived the pain temporary.

I think my body was over exhausted and still needed more time off or try something more calm for my body.  I just felt overwhelmed and tired of being constantly training, being outdoors, riding my bike, hiking, swimming, running. I even remember the time when I went to LA and went on a hike with a friend. We started to run uphill. I was tired, exhausted of non-stop training. I think that was the time I heard my body say: ENOUGH!!! out loud!  A few days later, I decided to just practice yoga…and another story began!

“I am considering practicing Yoga forever and ever! 🙂 It is amazing how my body has been feeling since I started doing Yoga!
This whole month, I started doing Bikram yoga. Practicing 5-6 times a week. I figured that if I want to continue doing triathlons, I really need to work on my whole body specially after my injuries. Also because my Doctor recommended it.
There are some poses I still can’t do too well like the Toe Stand Pose or the fixed Firm Pose or yet the most challenging one for me: Locust Pose. I have to keep both of my arms straight underneath my body and trying to lift my lower body with the strength of my arms specially the elbows. Since I broke my left elbow, I can’t fully strength my whole arm but I think with more practice, I will be able to do this 💪🏼 🙂 We can do anything! Namaste 🙏🏼
I won’t be running for a while (yoga will replace my runs) but riding and swimming are on.”