Close call

Shortly after my last post (which was ages ago, I know), I witnessed Mr. Lady Roadie have a VERY close call with a van.  We were on a route near our house that we've done a few times before.  We turn onto a very busy road that has 3-lanes in each direction, which admittedly, we have no business biking on.  However, we make a left turn onto it with a light, and take the very first right, so we're basically off it before the light has changed to let new traffic in.  If drivers kept their heads, it would be fine, but of course you can never count on drivers. 

We were coming up on the right turn to get off the road, Mr. Lady Roadie (MLR) in front.  A van passed me too close, giving me maybe a foot of clearance.  Not close enough to do more than unsettle me, but I shouted up to MLR to watch out as the van pulled up next to him.  Before the words were completely out of my mouth -- when the drivers side mirror of the van had passed MLR but the entire body of the van was a foot next to him -- the driver drifted RIGHT, bringing the van within inches of MLR.

I screamed, convinced that I was about to see my husband being killed in front of me.  Of course it was over in seconds, and the collision didn't happen.  MLR was fine.  We had turned off the main road pretty much as this was happening -- which is why the van drifted right, I suppose, as they took the fork with us.  I broke down in tears for about a second once I realized MLR was safe, and then instantly shifted to my big ring and SPRINTED to catch up with the van.  Probably not the smartest decision, but I was in full mama bear mode, ready to pull the driver out of his van and assault him.  He slowed when I shouted 'HEY ASSHOLE' and let me pull up next to his window.  I'm sure he thought I was a crazy person - I probably was a crazy person, shouting that he nearly killed my husband, before I pulled off the road.

MLR kept his head and pulled up next to the driver, trying to explain the 3 foot passing rule, but the driver just kept saying 'I couldn't give you more room without going over the line'.  I would love to sit down with this man and have him explain to me why he'd rather hit a cyclist than drift over a white line, or better yet, wait THREE seconds and switch lanes to safely pass.  He was in a work truck, and MLR was smart enough to memorize the company name and truck number before he pulled off the road.  We each called the company individually to complain, and I genuinely wanted the guy to lose everything he had - his license, his job, his house, his family - but of course the receptionist was nice so we instantly lost steam, and I'm sure no matter what nothing more than a verbal warning was going to happen.  I guess I don't REALLY want the guy to lose his house and family, anyway.

Of course there were some things for us to learn from the situation.  We should have taken the full lane on the busy road.  We're on it for such a short time, just pedaling quickly trying to get to the turn, that neither of us was really thinking about the lane, but we should have controlled it from the start.  That most likely would've prevented this situation, although it's sure not our fault.

That's the positive, I guess.  And that MLR is okay.  But the big negative is I developed an extreme fear of cars, which has plagued me all summer.  You just don't get over a close call like that quickly, and I think being the one to see it happen is worse.  Two or three weeks after the fact, drove out to a nearby town to do our favorite 30-mile route.  It takes you through great views, lots of terrain, good roads, and is just a nice varied ride.  However, we'd only done it on weekdays before, and this was a Thursday I happened to have off work.  It just didn't occur to us that the route would be busier on a Thursday morning than a Sunday morning.  About 5 miles in we ended up on a pretty two-lane road with a high speed limit, which is normally fine, but with the morning commute was fairly terrifying.  I kept going until the next turn, but I was shaken up, and the fear from the van incident came rushing back.  When the next road turned out to be mildly busy itself, I pulled off in a driveway and basically refused to continue.  I was too scared to let MLR bike back to the car himself, too scared to even bike to the next driveway when we realized someone was probably home in ours.  When we called my dad he gladly rescued us, but I just hated being out there scared, hated abandoning such a nice ride, especially knowing that this is going to be with me for a while.  When we were waiting for my dad to pick us up, I saw someone texting while driving, which didn't help matters. It really is scary out there.

So for the past month we've been sticking to low traffic, very familiar routes, even doing a lot of bike path riding.  It isn't ideal.  I hate that I've lost my nerve.  If we drive an hour we can get to some beautiful, very low traffic country riding, but I want to be able to bike near our house, and I'm worried about what will happen when we move away from bike baths and Beach Drive in the future.  Century training is still going well, I'm still hitting my weekly goal mileages, but I am definitely much more limited in where I feel comfortable. 

I'm back!  I don't know why I completely abandoned posting, as I did not abandon cycling.  Since my last post AGES ago, I successfully upgraded to clipless pedals (have not yet fallen once), upgraded my wheels and spent the winter training to Coach Troy (mileage dropped drastically of course but less so than the previous winter).  I got a slow start to this season due to some family issues, but I'm currently looking for a century to register for. 

Yesterday Mr. Lady Roadie and I went to Crystal City to see a pro crit race, which was hugely inspiring.  I would pay all my money to have the legs those guys have, even though it would look freakish on a lady.  They are SO STRONG.  All day at work I've been distracted by thoughts of training.  I do fully realize I have never been serious enough about training and getting in mileage, not even close.  I think at some point I planned to commit to 50 mile weeks, which would've been nice, but it didn't happen.  Work is unfortunately busy this summer but I think I have to start riding 4 times a week anyway.  I'm very interested to learn what kind of cyclist I can be with some actual consistency.  Last year I spent a lot more time talking and thinking about biking than I did actually riding.  I'm not going to get serious about training until July but I'm going to try to fit in midweek rides the rest of June, so I'll have a little bit of a base to increase on.