Well, where to start? When training becomes a big part of your routine, you find yourself training twice a day. You start your day with an hour and a half in the pool, then head straight to work, still smelling of chlorine. That smell stays with you all day until you log out at 5 PM and head home to get ready for either your run or bike ride. What a feeling!
But imagine one day you can’t do any of that. That’s been my case for the whole last month. I had an accident during my bike ride while training on the F1 circuit. Everything was okay until my 55th kilometer. It was very windy, and I was in my aero position. From time to time, I put my head down to get more aero and to relieve the tension in the back of my neck. Unfortunately, in a fraction of a second, I looked up and saw a pole right in front of me. I crashed into it.
I fell on my left shoulder, which took the brunt of the impact. I injured my knee, left hip, and head. Thankfully, I was wearing a helmet. When I got up, I couldn’t move my left arm. I touched the left side of my neck and realized my clavicle bone was broken. I panicked a bit and immediately thought about not being able to ride for months. I had an Ironman in two months that I had been training for more than a year. It would have been my first Ironman 70.3.
Well, I got transported to the emergency room, and they did all the MRIs and scans. Eventually, it turned out to be a huge clavicle fracture. I was in so much pain that they gave me strong medicine to calm it down. Five hours later, they released me to go back home and stay immobile for the next few weeks. No operation was required, which is both good and bad. It’s good because I don’t want to live with a piece of metal in my body, especially since I live in a very cold city during the winter. But it’s also bad because it might not heal correctly. Anyway, I hope it heals perfectly; I’m just trying to stay optimistic.
The huge struggle during this time isn’t physical but mental. Switching from training twice a day for months to total immobility is no joke. I started by watching movies, documentaries, and the Triathlon100 of London. Watching it was very hard; I couldn’t stand seeing people biking. At some point, I thought I would never touch a bike again.
That’s why I had the idea of sharing my thoughts with others. Maybe if someone else is struggling in the same situation, they can share this journey. Because I think being injured is part of the journey too.