I took the day off from riding because my knee insisted upon it. I spent much of my hallway chats with my co-workers explaining why I was particularly gimpy today... a limp that was out of the ordinary from my regular everyday limp. "Speegs, what'd you do to your leg?" or a joking "Red, did you fall off the bike?" (I'm pretty sure there's an office pool about when and how I'm going to end up in the ER) to which I replied "Yes, but that's not why I'm limping." and then I'd show my blue lump to my squeamish co-workers. Even my supervisor, who is an EMT, grimaced at the sight of my arm. Funny, I was able to get her to gasp at the sight of a large oozy-blistery burn on my hand a few months ago, how does she deal with the really gory stuff she sees when she has to work the meat wagon?
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| The Lump, 48 hours after impact. |
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| The Lump has diminished 5 days later, but was very colorful. |
Being unable to ride, this was an opportune time to give Ruby's chain, cassette and rear brakes a good cleaning and re-lubing. They were making rubbing noises that no doubt annoyed and perplexed the heck out of my fellow riders on Sunday. By the end of the ride, the chain was making a squeaking noise and the chain was skipping in certain gears. I gimped over to the loading dock bike rack on my lunch hour and brushed quite a bit of gunk and debris out of the chain and rear derailleur. I don't think the cleaning of the brakes helped with their stickiness, I may have to take it to a professional.
Bike fitting follow-up
It had been 3 weeks since my bike fitting. My fitter had told me that the stem he was ordering would be in 2 weeks ago. I've not heard from him, so I sent an message to him to see what's up.Tuesday, January 14th
My knee was somewhat back to normal-ish so I took Ruby out in the rain to see if I had mad skillz at cleaning and lubing a drivetrain. The good news was that I heard no annoying rubbing noises! Even the rear brakes were silent. The bad news was that the chain still skipped when I'd shift into or out of my 2 most frequently used gears. Ugh.
More bruises emerge
There's a bruise and tender spot on my left hip, so I guess I hit that too when I took my spill on Sunday.
My trainer/massage therapist took pity on me when she saw my arm and I explained my knee and shoulder might not be 100% for a vigorous workout, so she massaged me instead. Bruise perk!
She also scolded me for poking at it. She explained that it could trigger a hematoma or loosen a clot. Good to know.
