A different kind of training…


 A different kind of training…



I tried to do everything right on Tuesday.  I ate well balanced meals.  I went to the bedroom at 9:30.  I laid in bed and visualized myself making it over cross.  Everything was set to be perfect.  I should have known after tossing and turning until 11:40 it wasn’t going to be.



Another warning sign could have been when I was awoken out of my slumber when a 12.5 year dog started running laps around my room at 2:45 am.  She wasn’t getting her exercise she was letting me know Uncle Billy, I gotta poo and I gotta go now.  So, that was an extra half hour of being awake in the middle of the night that should have been a warning sign. 



The morning meeting ran a little long and people needed me at work could have been another indication today wasn’t going to be my day out there.  Or at least not the day that I planned.  That’s ok, I’ve learned to role with the punches.


I was out and on my bike today by 11:25 and I was heading out to face the climb over Cross.  If all went to plan I’d have enough time to grab a quick shower before my 1:30 call.  


My legs felt fresh and good when I started my 5.6 mile climb.  It still is funny to my to think that MapMyRide thinks from my house over the first hill on Cross is a 5.6 mile climb but hey let’s go with it.  When I turned onto Greenville I asked myself if I was ready.  I said honestly I wasn’t.  I was going to do it but I wasn’t ready and I was a little scared.  


I passed Los Positas and I started to think my back wheel feels like it is sliding on ice.  So I kept cranking and I was like I feel like it is slipping again.  What the hell is going on back there?  Pedal, Pedal, pedal and slip and slide, slip and slide and I’m almost to the overpass and I decide I better check things out and I pull over and I reach back and feel my back wheel and my heart sunk a little.  It was flat.  Somewhere between Northfront and Los Positas I blew the damn thing.  


Now I was really scared because in all my years riding bikes I’d never had a flat, that I had to fix myself.  That was until today.  I once got a flat in the Tour of Napa, but David and Coach Janna were like an Indy 500 out crew in action and they changed it for me.  It was amazing.  The other time I remember blowing a tire I was with David again and he biked home and got the car and we drove home bc we didn’t have the tools to fix it.  Other than that, other than tires coming untrue I’ve been lucky.  


I’m no tire changing virgin though.  I’ve had practice.  I kept my old rims, tubes, and tires that came on my bike before I upgraded to bomb proof rims.  I kept them for the sole purpose to practice taking out a tube and putting a new tube in.  That was 10+ years ago.  The only thing I had done since starting ride again besides making sure I had tubes and air cartridges on my bike was watch one video on YouTube about tire changes.  That training, the training from TNT, Janna, and David paid dividends today.


It wasn’t easy.  It took probably 20 minutes according to my app, but I was able to take my back tire off.  Remove the bad tube.  Put a new tube in, get some air in it, and get back home.  Never have I been prouder of a 57 minute 5 mile ride.


It wasn’t the training I expected to do today but it was training I needed.  I had mentioned on Monday that I needed to make sure I could change a tire if I needed too.  Well today I found out I could do that when I needed to.  It was a pain.  I broke my tool.  I wasted an air cartridge.  I bent my presta valve but the tire is on, I could ride on it and it’s still holding air.  So, I did it.  I was able to change a flat when it mattered.  


I’m glad I decided to turn for home when I did.  I road home on 40 PSI, I normally ride on 110 PSI.  It felt every bump in the road on the way home.  If I would have tried to climb on that tire as it was, badness would have happened. 


Some days don’t go as you plan but you get a great benefit out of them anyway.  Today was just that sort of day.  So, after a bummer of a bike ride, I turned to a strong workout with my trainer.  Full body workout that rocked.  It was what the doctor ordered.  So, maybe I didn’t get up cross but I was able to practice a different much needed skill. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It is all over but the Dying… oops I mean Crying… crying….

Image
It is all over but the Dying… oops I mean Crying… crying…. August 2, 2025 I have consistently joked about my demise in New Mexico.  Mainly, because 85 miles and 6,000 feet of climbing sounds like a lot.  I double that mileage on the weekends and matched that climbing in the month of July.  Physically, I think I am as ready as I can before The Enchanted Circle.  Mentally, I am working on it.   I tried to lie down last night and imagine myself successfully climbing the Circle.  Leaving Taos and pushing my way back to Red River.  All I thought about was all the times I had stopped and had to walk or rest going up hills.  That wasn’t exactly what I was looking for.  I need to stop saying I am going to die in New Mexico and start to think about how much fun I am going to have.  No work.  No drama.  Just me and my bike and a big challenge in front of me.  I got this....
Read more

Dam to Dam - September 8, 2024

Image
  Dam to Dam - September 8, 2024   The 15 th annual Dam to Dam has come and gone.   I am very happy to have been part of it.   The ride is not without its faults, and the day was not perfect, but it was overall a great ride.   Wabash, IN is sort of in the middle of no where up in Northern Indiana.   North of Kokomo and east of Peru and not far from Miami and Mexico.   Yes, I know that sounds like a lot of different geography, but those are all towns around Wabash.   If you happened to drive from Terre Haute to Wabash like we did, then you have gone through Brazil, however, Brazil isn’t close to Wabash.   Wabash is probably three times the size of Colusa, CA which is where last year’s main ride took place.     So compared to where we did our century ride last year, we were in a boom metropolis.   I liked Wabash, it was a quant little town.   The Hampton Inn where we stayed was super nice.   Everyone was friend...
Read more

TarWheel coming this April

Image
  TarWheel One can’t simply rest on one’s laurels, can one?  That seems like a very fancy sentence for those of us at the Dreaming of a Life Less Ordinary.  I guess that is my fancy way of saying it is time to start targeting a new challenge and while I hope very soon to be announcing two new challenges, right now I can only announce one.   As I continue to check states off my list of places to ride, the next state of our union to be checked off is North Carolina at the Annual TarWheel Cycling Event in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.    The event is Saturday April 12, 2025, in the aforementioned, Elizabeth City.  The distance is 62 miles and like 0 climbing.  This thing is flat as a board, want to insert jokes about prom date, but this is 2025 and there is no room for that, we are an evolved group at the Dream of a Life Less Ordinary.  Although really the elevation gain is 369 feet, which is not much. ...
Read more