I hoped I'd make it at least a week...

... before suffering any significant injury on the bike. Sadly, that was not to be: As I was cycling to work this morning I got hit by a car.

I was only about a mile from home, riding along a main road through a traffic-light-controlled junction, which was on green when I rode past the lights but which turned to amber just after I rode through. The junction is quite long, and I remember thinking that because I was slower than a car, by the time I rode past the minor road on the left-hand side, the lights could well be on green for traffic to come out of that road and onto the road I was on. A woman came down that road, slowed down when the lights were red but because they turned to green before she'd stopped, she accelerated and turned right, just as I was riding past. If I had had another second to realise what was about to happen, I could probably have cycled faster and she would have missed me, but unfortunately I didn't have that second and the nearside front corner of her car hit my back wheel and sent me flying a couple of feet through the air.

I landed on my hands and knees, facing the direction I'd come from, and was immediately aware that I had cramp in my left toes. The woman got out of her car and came over to me as I was trying to shake out my cramp. It wasn't until I got rid of it that I realised my legs had turned to jelly and my left ankle was killing me. It took a little while for me to get enough feeling back in my legs to hobble to the side of the road and sit down. The woman called Rob - who had originally planned to do a long ride this morning, but then decided a few minutes extra in bed were preferable, otherwise he might not have been in - and he put the bike rack in the car and came to pick me up. The bike didn't seem to be damaged, other than a few scratches on the pedals etc.

We drove home and took the bike off the car, then we went to the hospital for some x-rays to make sure nothing was broken. I've heard people say that a sprain hurts more than a break, and my ankle was hurting like hell, so I hoped that was a good sign. Turns out I didn't break anything, but I tore the ligaments in my ankle pretty badly. I have to do the usual - rest, ice, compression, elevation - but make sure to keep exercising it so it doesn't seize up too much. When I stand on it after sitting down for a while, it really hurts for the first couple of minutes but then eases off after that.

I've felt quite emotional all day - anyone who knows me will tell you I'm a crier. I didn't cry when it happened, but I bawled while I was sitting in the car and Rob was putting the bike on the rack, then I cried when I got home, then when I told the triage nurse what happened, then I welled up a couple of times while I was waiting for a doctor to check my x-rays, then I got home and read Ben's post about what happened and cried again, then again when my Mum called to find out if I was OK, and a couple more times throughout the afternoon. I keep saying to people that I should just go upstairs and cry myself out, to get it out of my system, but I haven't done it yet. The cleaner came round this afternoon and I didn't think it would be a good look to be sobbing uncontrollably while she was here!

The doctor says it will be a week to 10 days before it will start feeling right again, but as soon as it does, I'll be back on the bike.