Shhh...this is Silver's hubby...

[DeniseGoldberg]

Sorry, but I'm not very good at rhyming...

• First, be patient. I looked back through the posts about Silver's crash, and it happened back on October 29th. That's only two weeks ago, not a lot of time. (Silver's hubby: expecting Elaine to be back on a bicycle in that short a period of time after an accident like the one she had is probably not realistic.)
• Give yourself time to let the fear recede into the background. And remember that fear is normal after a crash like yours. It doesn't have to be rational, but it is very normal. I suppose that I was very lucky in my own bad crash. I had a skull fracture and a severe brain injury, neither of which feels very lucky - but my injuries caused me to lose all memory of my crash, so I didn't have to fight fear. I did have to wait for clearance from my docs though, so I was off of my bike for a good 6 weeks. Recovery time passes; if biking was a part of your life that you loved in the past, I believe that you will be able to overcome your fear in time.
• Ease back into exercise. Maybe walking will feel right to you; maybe riding your bike on a trainer or riding an exercise bike will feel right. There isn't any right or wrong here - just what feels right to you.
• Learn from what happened, and if possible change your riding style to avoid the situation that frightens you. You went off the edge of the pavement; if it were me I'd probably make sure to ride further to the left in the future (that is, away from the edge).
• When it feels right to ride again, take your bike somewhere with little traffic so you can get comfortable rolling along on two wheels again without having to deal with too many external factors. Maybe a short ride with your DH (and no one else, not a club ride!) would be a good start.
  

And remember - you didn't do anything wrong. Accidents happen; sometimes they can be avoided, sometimes they can't. But even so - just think of all of the accident-free miles that you (and all of us) have ridden.

If biking was an important part of your life in the past, if biking is something that you would like to continue to be a part of your life, I believe that you will be able to return to it. Wait, and it will feel right again.

--- Denise