Originally Posted by
robabeatle
Thanks, I'd rather have not been hit in the first place of course!
Understood.
One thing that I think about is my 2009 crash. Okay, it cost me a bunch of money that I'm sorely missing right now, but other than that and the actual physical pain and inconvenience of the hospital stuff etc for the most significant month or two it had a lot of beneficial effects. It prompted me to take significant (more than a week or two) time off the bike for the first time since 1982 or so. I used my immobile time to consider a custom frame, researched wheels, and decided to diet for the first time in my life. I returned to my 155 lbs weight from 1997-1999, I did a big off season, got that frame, got new wheels, and had the best season ever in terms of points - I upgraded to Cat 2 for the first time ever in August.
Without the bad stuff (crash, wheelchair, etc) I'd have realistically not done much new, not learned anything, and I'd have been worried about being too heavy at 210 in the winter, racing at 190-200 in the spring, 180-190 during the summer, and realistically I'd have been a middling 3 again. Even now, when I feel "heavy" after my 2010 year, I'm 10 lbs lighter than I was at my lightest in 2009.
I'm applying one of the lessons I learned then - I'm taking some solid time off the bike now, focusing on losing weight after keeping something in reserve to help my dad, after dealing with Junior's massive fever, and recovering from being sick myself. I last rode the first week of Sept and I didn't really make plans to ride any time soon. I have to admit that I thought about riding again at about 2 AM this morning - nowadays I can't sleep well at night and I think riding will help fatigue me more.