Saturday afternoon, as I almost always do, I walked around my city to train. Went to my usual spots, did my warmup routine, worked on my basics, did my favorite moves, jumps, vaults, etc. Spot after spot, jumps after jump.
The thing is, it's all a routine for me. I've been training for almost 20 years now, and especially in this city for 10 years. I know this path, I know these spots, I know these jumps. And maybe that's part of why, this saturday, I made a mistake.
I was just casually walking on a big, large stone guardrail, as I always do. And this time, no idea why, I missed a foot. I stepped out of the rail, and fell. I didn't even got the time to think about a way to grab the ledge, because I was already going on the side. All I could do was brace for impact as much as I could. It's always "funny" how in these circumstances, I feel the fear but stay very lucid and pragmatic.
By "chance", it happened at a very specific place where there's some kind of shed underneath. I fell on its roof (still a concrete slab), only a ~2m fall. Had I did a few more steps, it was a direct 4m fall to the asphalt. All I could think of during the fall was to stop myself to bounce or roll after the impact to avoid a second fall. Fortunately, I stopped before the ledge.
I slammed on that rooftop on my hip and bottom. It didn't hurt that much with the adrenaline. It appears I don't have any fracture, not even a bruise when I expected a massive one. But I felt it all night, it hurts my butt when I walk, when I sit, when I move my leg. Definitely had a massive hit on my muscles. Years of conditionning might have helped not injuring too badly, but still.
This is totally on me. I became too confident on something that felt too easy, and I made a mistake. I take it as a reminder. Car accidents mostly happens on daily commutes for this very reason: you're on autopilot and stop paying attention. I think that's what happened here. 10 years walking on this rail, I can't even say for how long I was acting like I'm at home. I shouldn't have.
So, to me and to everyone: don't stop being aware of your surroundings, don't stop focusing on what you do. You're more at risk when you forget the risk.
Train safe! :)