As we've started to log more and more miles as a team, the injuries have started to appear. Everything from road rash from a bad fall to overworked muscles to a hurt knee from lack of stretching. Injuries are expected. Unfortunate, but expected. Seriously, we're gonna ride more in the next 8 months than most people do in a lifetime. My thought is, better now when you can take a week off from training and have access to a doctor than in the middle of the Rockies, 100 miles from the nearest doctor with 4 more weeks of riding ahead of you.

I was unlucky enough to get my first injury last week. A little background: I do Tae Kwon Do and have been training for about 4 and a half years. Over the years I've repeatedly hurt my ankles from doing jump breaks. Lots of them. What can I say, I like to get aerial. I never was one to break a lot of boards at once, so I decided to take one piece of wood and elevate it before breaking it. It's a good trick at a TKD demonstration when I jump over people before breaking boards. Anyway, from hundreds of jumps, my ankles have taken a beating. It hadn't bothered me at all while riding though, so that was a blessing.

Last Saturday, we were supposed to be doing a 50 mile ride, heading south from Austin to Buda and back around. I was sweeping for group 1, making sure we didn't lose any riders in the group. About 20 miles out, one of our riders, who had been feeling sick the whole ride decided she needed to turn around, that it would be better to bike the 20 miles back than the 30 miles ahead. Up until now, I'd been fine. Somewhere in the 5 miles after we turned around my right ankle started to bother me a little. Of course, I paid it no heed. Getting back to campus and walking around on it all day, it still bothered me, but I figured it would pass. I'd had pain in my ankles hundreds of times before and sleeping on it for a night had worked every time so far.

But this was different. I went to sleep Saturday night, anticipating an early morning so that I could drive out to Fayetteville for a little reunion with some of the cycling coaches who has first gotten the team on their pedals and on the road when we received the bikes. I woke up around 4:30 with my ankle hurting. I realized it was swollen, something that I hadn't noticed the night before. So much for that ride reunion...

I've been off the ankle for a few days now, no running, no riding, no jumping of things, and its definitely gotten better. Some ice stopped the swelling and the pain is down to a minimal, occurring only when I have my foot at a weird angle, like on an incline. I'm riding again for the first time in 6 days tomorrow morning, so we'll see what happens. Hopefully this old injury doesn't come back to haunt me.

Happy Riding!

Today, I ride for our 140 applicants, each with their own reason for riding, even if they haven't been accepted to the team yet.