...is that I'm able to ride my bike again! I've been for a short ride up and down the street. The bad news is that my knee still hurts like crazy. I'm hoping at least that it's going to heal itself with time because it has got a lot better since that fateful Wednesday morning.

In any case, I think my dreams of running my first marathon next year have probably been dashed, which is a shame. It's definitely still on the list for sometime soon though, should my knee permit.

I returned to work a week and a half ago which was, as many people warned, probably a bit too soon. It was immensely tiring for a week and come 7pm, I'd be pretty much wiped and unable to hold an intelligent conversation. Still, I survived and it let me get out of house! The dizziness has mostly gone away unless I lie on the left side of my head, which is a little worrying.

Anyway, enough medical offloading. I've started planning the replacement to the late Woodrup that was lost in the crash. Since that was pretty much my around town bike, I've decided to replacement it with the quintessential town bike: a fixed gear bike! None of the off the shelf bikes are sufficiently unique for me, so I'm going to be attempting to assemble a new bike from scratch.

This is what I've decided so far-
Frame: On-One Pompino
Fork: Surly Crosscheck (this was the fork I took to Africa)
Hub: Shimano XT Disc Hub
Cog: VeloSolo Disc Cog
As for wheels, that's to be decided but I'm probably going to get something ridiculously bright.

That's it for today, more as I decide it!

I've just arrived at the end of a relatively eventful week! No doubt if you've been following me on Facebook or Twitter, you'll already know what events I'm talking about.

Wednesday morning, running ten minutes late for work (late by my own standards more than actually being late), I was sprinting down St. Albans road between my house and Watford Junction where I park my bike on the way to work. Normally the traffic moves so slowly that it's safe enough without a helmet and it's barely 1.5 miles from door to door. This Wednesday morning however, as I later found out, a bus driver decided to headlight flash a Ford Ka coming the other way who was waiting to turn right. The Ford Ka didn't see me coming up the inside of the bus and took the corner - and the split second following, I have a very distinct memory of embracing the bonnet of the car with a lot of force at about 20 MPH. (If you want to see the actual junction on Streetview, check it out here.)

I don't remember much of what happened shortly afterwards so I'm just going to list what I've pieced together in some sort of approximate order-
1) Very many pedestrians helped me pick myself and my bike up off the road.
2) Several people called ambulances (in fact I think there were three ambulances and two police cars).
3) Supposedly my first reaction (undoubtedly one of shock) was to immediately start sending a message on my phone...
4) I started losing it as soon as I got into the ambulance. I couldn't remember my name, my address or my phone number. I had no idea who the current prime minister was and I thought I was late for school.
5) The ambulance took me to hospital at 9am.
6) Somehow the paramedics managed to call my sister and when I came to at the hospital, my sister and mother were by my side.
7) A CT scan, diagnosed concussion and four stitches later, I was slowly recovering. They kept me for a couple of hours to observe me and sent me on my way home at about 3pm.
(Fans of Geek on a Bicycle will be astounded that my shoulder didn't dislocate. I can reveal that it is a little sore but is very much where it should be!)

There is a picture of a broken me and my broken bicycle here.

As part of standard recovery, I'm housebound for a while - and won't be returning to work until Monday. I'm not supposed to drive for a couple of weeks and no sport for at least that long too. Whilst I can't say that I would have escaped without an injury if I had been wearing a helmet, it would certainly have lessened the impact of the concussion... I'm pretty certain the stitches on my face and general road rash all over my shoulders, arms and legs would still have been there. Lesson learnt though - I will be wearing my helmet forevermore, even if it is a slight inconvenience.

The Tour D'Afrique is a fairly substantial physical challenge, and I've tried my hardest to train appropriately. Unfortunately, my travel plans of the last three months (i.e. living in India) have made that difficult. In addition, for those keeping track of my injuries, sometime just over a couple of weeks ago, I dislocated my right shoulder for the fifth time. It reset itself as I was strapped into the stretcher on the way down from the piste.

This is a recurring problem - despite surgery to 'fix' the problem. This was the first dislocation since the surgery so it is the question of concern is whether any further permanent damage has been done. My shoulder consultant has recommended for an arthroscopic MRI next week, so I'll report back once the results are through. With any luck though, it'll just be a case of physiotherapy. If it has been damaged then more surgery may be necessary.

It has since returned to a fairly normal state and I've been trying as hard as I can to train in Mombasa, whilst enjoying the full range of the resort's buffet meals.

Jogging on the beach-
Painful! I was using trainers that aren't really running trainers - gave this up pretty quickly after a combination of foot pain and late nights meant that early morning runs were unfeasible.

Gym-
The resort had a reasonable array of exercise equipment to use and I visited it about five times, for about 1 to 2 hours. Concentrated mainly on the recumbent bicycle and treadmill - the normal cycle had an incredibly painful saddle. My shoulder ached a bit on the treadmill after a while but once I started correcting my posture, it was much more comfortable.
Pressups and core exercises were a bit more wobbly but doable in slightly smaller sets of repetitions.

Tennis-
Raquet sport is an obvious danger area for shoulder injuries and I approached the game with fair caution. There was no pain though, and the only issue was a slight loss of fine control since the ligaments in my shoulder are now looser than normal. In actual fact, my forehand stroke seemed smoother as a result.

Cycling-
We managed to borrow some hard tail mountain bikes from a family friend. Cycling on the beach was quite difficult - I can see sandy surfaces becoming quite problematic. Cycling on the (decent) Kenyan road outside the resort was smooth - although the occasional potholes and speed bumps mean that some kind of suspension is desirable. I locked out the front fork to gain an idea of how my rigid cyclocross bike would fare and am quite happy that I invested in a suspension seatpost now! The heat is also going to be an issue - in the middle of afternoon, my shirt was quickly soaked after about five minutes of riding at my usual pace. Will definitely have to look into hydration packs this week.

The skiing portion of my skiing holiday came to an abrupt and rather disppointing end yesterday afternoon when one of the consistently rebellious traits of the human psyche flouted the principles of self preservation. Overconfidence stemming from my lack of falls previously leds to a faster and more dramatic fall.

In the confusing first moments of the aftermath, it was instantly (and painfully) clear that a particular favourite recurrent injury had reimplemented itself: my right shoulder had dislocated.

For observers who are unaware of the considerable history surrounding my shoulder, it first dislocated in a bicycle fall caused by a mechanical disfunction in late November, 2004. Since then, further bicycle accidents and just standing in the sea (!) easily pushed it out. In Easter 2008, I decided to have it surgically stabilised, a measure which seemed to have fixed the problem.

Whatever effect the operation had, it clearly was not formidable enough and it was with surprising familiarity that I found myself unable to move my arm near the top of a red run. My friends and skiing partners quickly realised something was wrong and with the help of some passing skiiers they flagged down the ski patrol.

Having seen the snow stretchers in action before, I never once imagined that I would one day be riding in such a contraption. They strapped me to the stretcher quite tightly and began the ride to the medical centre. From my perspective, it appeared that we were travelling with significant speed. My friends inform me that this was not the case and I call into my defense the overwhelming sensation of cold and pins and needles that were encompassing my arm.

As we reached the medical centre, a lot of waiting around was necessary, and following some X-Rays, the French Doctor (quite a character, claimed to have mended over 3,000 shoulders in his career) determined that my shoulder had reduced itself on the way back down.

I almost wish I hadn't taken a stretcher down since the slip they handed me at the bottom made clear a €315 payment that I needed to pass on to my insurance company. While my ski insurance now seems like a positive bargain (£17 for the week), it seems my premium will now go up in the future. In addition, a good friend of mine with shoulder problems similarly injured himself on a ski slope. Being the hardcore type that he was, he simply skiied himself down to the medical centre.

This leaves me 'stuck' here in Courchevel 1650, not an unpleasant place at all. It's just with the lack of skiing and the plethora of items on my to-do list at home, I feel time is wasted slightly. Getting back home would be difficult however (requiring a bus, two trains, a flight and a further train journey), so I have resigned myself to relaxing in the Alps and basking in the sympathy of the ski reps.