Saturday: Unpleasant Surprises
Saturday started out normally… I got up, made coffee, fed the cat (who is irritatingly still alive), and gathered my gear for a communal bike work out at Esther and Gyula’s house.
But before any of that, I did what I always do: check the email, check out the facebook, and check out the analytics for my blog. I was particularly pleased to see that on Friday someone from New York City had spent precisely 7 minutes and 18 seconds here.
Which made me think of über blogger Bike Snob NYC. Since I hadn’t taken the time to read his blog for a while, I decided to go for a visit. When I did, I got a very unpleasant surprise. The Snob and I had both written about the same thing on Friday! Talk about embarrassing!
Here’s my post.
Here’s his. (scroll about half way down)
The irony of course is that I wrote about the awkward faux-pas of everybody on Team Leopard-Trek showing up in the same outfit, and this is most certainly the blogging equivalent. Even worse, writing about the same topic as The Snob is like showing up at a party in the same dress as Carmen Electra.
I’m not a brunette, or as skinny as Olive Oyle, but you get the idea. It is a no-win situation.
My second unpleasant surprise came in the shower after the long(ish) indoor communal bike workout. As a de-grossed myself, I looked down to see what I thought was dirt (the obvious answer) on my right foot. Said dirt proved impossible to remove, even while precariously balancing on one foot and scrubbing with soap and a loofah (for you dudes out there, that’s an abrasive scrubby thing). Said dirt was in fact a nasty bruise. (If you are one of those people grossed out by feet, you might not want to read further. If you are one of those people turned on by feet, …you know that’s a little weird, right?)
I hadn’t noticed the bruise before, and am pretty sure it was sustained during the workout. But I cannot figure out for the life of me what could have caused it. I’ve never had a bruise there before. And no, I did not drop the trainer on my foot. Have any of you bike people out there experienced this? Is is the equivalent of runners’ black toes and removable toenails? My road shoes (Specialized) are getting older, and I did experience some irritating numbness over the course of the workout, but nothing I would classify as out of the ordinary.
I am resisting the urge to check it out on webmd.com, because it will in all likelihood either tell me that I am a hemophiliac, or that I have cancer, when the logical conclusion, of course, is that I need a new carbon fiber Trek Madone 6.9. Easy.
Uh… does the lady in the picher have similar swellings, but in a different area……..no, wait…..
Yes, strange coincidence. I’ve had that happen to me before but not with him. What’s the saying? Great minds think alike? Or is it Great minds ride bikes?
As for the foot. In my experience bruises tend to take a couple of days to come to full fruition so I would examine what shoes you were wearing on Friday.
Or maybe you kicked the cat while sleepwalking?
From a medical stand point I have to agree that a new Madone will make the bruise heal much quicker; that is the cure for all cycling boo-boo’s new equipment !!
I had a bruise like that that was caused by a shoe that was too small width-wise… but that took a long ass ride to show itself …if it was caused on the trainer your cleat could be too far back on your shoe causing your toes to slide forwards in your shoe against the front…your sock might have been bunched up, that might cause it over time…check too make sure your cleats are centered on your shoe properly too…stop kicking cats too:(
Thanks all. Unfortunately I can’t blame new and impractical girly shoes…
But after 5 good years it’s probably time to retire the old road shoes. I suspect with the stretch and wear, my feet are so loose in the shoes they are slamming around like a cat in a clothes dryer. If you’ll excuse the comparison. ; )
And I’m quite sure a sweet new bike would help as well.
Oh, and I’ll definitely have a look at cleat position as well!!
Make sure the new bike shoes match James’ frame eh. New bike shoes….. shucks! 😉