Broken Cleat "Injuries"

When I was up north with my family recently and got in so many nice bike rides, I finally changed my bike cleats and shoes. When my left cleat broke in October, I didn't have much trouble with it all winter on the trainer. But outside, it's been easy to slip off it and slam my foot back against it because of my broken cleat.

A week before our family vacation, I slipped out and slammed the side of my foot against my pedal. It was sore for 2 days and left quite a mark.

On my first long ride in Alexandria, I slipped out near the end and slammed my foot against the pedal. It ripped off a little skin. Here's what it looked like the next day, and the fainter mark behind it was the mark from the week before:

Close up of the "fresh" mark and the week-old mark.

That was the day I changed my cleats and shoes, and now I'm golden again! I've told myself on a few rides that I can actually be pulling up in my pedal stroke again, so "make sure to remember to use that again!"