I've been told it's not a matter of IF, but WHEN you or someone you are training with has a fall on the bike. We were finishing up a phenomenal ride on Saturday when one of our friends "went boom" with only 1.2 miles to go. He's got some missing teeth, a few broken bones and one wicked concussion, but thankfully we know he'll be just fine in time. But we had a lot of things in our favor:
* Accident wasn't caused by or worsened by a passing or oncoming car
* Friend was riding in the middle of a pack of us which included a few really experienced cyclists
* First passerby was a nurse, and treated him immediately until the fire department arrived
* Friend's cell phone had some family members listed in address book
I wanted to post about that last point. We spend so much time making sure we are properly prepared for the physical and mental exertion of the endurance sports; planning out the exact science of nutrition, strength and flexibility to avoid common overuse injuries. We all have contingency plans in place for unexpected weather and even the occasional flat tire. But WITHOUT EXCEPTION, all endurance athletes should also be prepared for unexpected medical emergency.
It's easy and requires little training. Please read and send along to your fellow athletes this post for 3 Immediate and Simple tasks to train safely:
1. HELMET - I'll keep searching but promise you I will not find any story about a cyclist or triathlete who was spared worse fate by NOT using a helmet. Always use the helmet, no matter how fast, slow, short, long, crowded, or isolated your ride is. Bad pun to say this is a no-brainer, but...
2. Use "ICE" (In Case of Emergency)
Paramedics will turn to a victim's cell phone for clues to that person's identity. You can make their job much easier with a simple idea that they are trying to get everyone to adopt: ICE.
If you add an entry in the contact list in your cell phone under ICE, with the name and phone no. of the person that the emergency services should call on your behalf, you can save them a lot of time and have your loved ones contacted quickly. All it cost you is a few moments of your time to do.
The ICE acronym allows emergency officials to quickly access the right names from a cell phone's address book. It can save valuable time, since many people identify family members only by name in their cell, making them indistinguishable from other entries. Note this is a good practice for ANYONE!
No matter how skilled you are as a swimmer, runner or cyclist you should always let someone know where you are training and when you expect to be back. You may think this is a pain in the ass and you wouldn't want to bug friends or neighbors, but if you're missing and unclaimed in a hospital bed for days because nobody knew to look for you, you'll look like an even bigger fool. Make plans to enjoy a nice lunch after your long rides or runs - someone will know where and when to expect you, and you'll have something to look forward to during your training!
Be safe,
Jen
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