Real men shave their legs

I should be writing a race review of the Sylvan Beach triathlon last weekend. Instead... bicycle safety. Last friday night, I headed out for a medium intensity brick workout. I had planned a fast paced 12-mile bike before a transition to a med paced 5 mile run. I didn't quite make it to the run. At mile 10 of the bike I approached an intersection, checked to make sure that it was clear, and then accelerated to make it through quickly. Little did I know, coming the opposite direction, a lady made the decision to try and beat out a yellow light. She made a quick left turn and managed to put herself directly in the path of my bike before I even knew what was going on. The most dangerous aspect of training for a triathlon is riding in the aero position. I need to spend a lot of time in the aero bars to simply get used to it. This is my first tri bike, and with a back surgery just 6 months ago, it is taking lots of practice and adjustments in spacing to find out how to be the most comfortable. The dangerous part about the aeros is your ability to react. When training, you don't have the benefit of a closed course like on race day, and when a driver gets careless your hands are nowhere near your breaks. By the time I saw the car, I knew I was going to hit it. Naturally, I swerved anyway, and was able to minimize the damage (namely staying alive). Instead of a direct impact with the side of her vehicle, my handlebars suffered the biggest punishment when they plunged into her tail-light. This wrenched my front fork, ripped the front tire off the wheel, and threw me over the back of the car into the middle of the intersection. So instead of the car stopping me in my tracks I was able to slowly decelerate on the pavement... hehe. But seriously, this was probably the main contributing factor for me walking away with zero broken bones. Instead, all of my clothing was ripped up pretty good, I separated my shoulder, got some pretty decent whiplash, plenty of road-rash, and a great little knot on the head. The helmet definitely saved my life, the tri-shorts and top absolutely minimized the amount of road rash, the gloves kept my hands from getting chewed up, and the fact that I had just shaved my arms, legs, shoulders... and well, just about everything, saved me loads of discomfort after the fact. When you have a particularly hairy disposition, such as myself, road rash is a fearsome enemy in the immediate days and weeks, post crash. Wound care is miserable when the adhesive tape is pulling out hundreds of hairs each time you change a bandage. And as the wound dries out and scabs start to form, you know your on the road to recovery. The funny thing about wounds.... the scabs seem to shrink as they heal, and this pulls out even more hair. So, you're fighting the hair pulling battle literally with every step, bend, lunge, and turn. So, If you're going to ride your bike, by all means... gear up, stay alert, and go to your bathroom right now and shave.