I wondered if I would become more careful after breaking my foot. It’s true that I’ve generally become more careful as I’ve become older (we learn from our mistakes?) but would the break or the time in plaster or the foolishness of it all drive me to wrap myself in bubblewrap in many aspects of my life?
Cornering on the bike hasn’t been like it was when I was 18 for a long time. Putting holes in clothes from rubbing them against tarmac and then having to pay for new or ride in holey stuff has slowed me down there, no doubt. After riding through an icy winter it takes a while to regain the trust of friction between tarmac and rubber too. If I was road racing or hanging on in a criterium it would be a different matter, but training and the TT nature of triathlon doesn’t reward the risk of fast, tight, hang-it-all-out cornering in quite the same way.
Running and walking I’m very careful of kerbs, but I always tended to watch where I was putting my feet anyway. I’ve also been very mindful of kids’ toys around the house. Some of the harder, pointer ones would do nasty things to my left foot, so it’s a bit of a minefield in the bedrooms. I often use a minesweeper action to clear a path through Jack’s room.
But coming down the stairs slows me down. I don’t bounce or run down stairs in the same way at all, as you might expect. When I approach the bottom of the staircase I take particular care. If I’m absently scratching my nose my brain picks up that I’m running out of stairs, it clears its process list and focuses all my attention on that bottom step.
Careful now.
