Did you ever get stung by a bee while bike riding? I have had this happen three times now. Recently, I got to experience it once again. The stupid little insect decided to give up its life in return for a pain in my leg; his decision was my downfall!
I was out training for my next bike race that day, pushing it hard up a 16% gradient. I do this for several reasons: first and foremost, to train my max heart rate up to a higher level, secondly because I know that being clipped in to the pedals on such a hill is a sure guarantee that I cannot stop in the middle and wimp out as there is no way to unclip fast enough to avoid rolling backwards and eventually crashing. The older I get, the harder it is to love pain! When I train, I am looking to put my heart rate just below the anaerobic threshold (AT) and train there. In case you didn't know, this hurts!
My violent reaction while trying to kill the bee, caused me to jerk the handlebars with my other hand and I lost momentum, swerved hard left and went crashing down into the oncoming lane. Final resting position was on my back, feet up in the air and still clipped into the pedals. I managed to get free and fortunately, there were no cars on the hill that night. I suffered an expansive set of road rash from fingers to knee, and a sore hip on my left side, but otherwise nothing serious. It probably was highly entertaining for anyone in the nearby farmhouse that happened to see the incident.
Clipping back in at 16% grade was tough, but I managed, finished up that hill and another 1700' more of climbing that night. I took the next day off, but was back in the saddle the day after that.
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