1000 Mile Blow Out

I was all stoked to have a great ride today. I was super fueled from all the food at the wedding yesterday. I did not do any exercise the day before because of the wedding and I knew I was going to pedal my 1000th mile on this bike while I was out today.

After mile 1003 I hear pssssssssssssssssssssss.

Ahhhhh shit, just what I didn't need, a flat. So I pull off the road, take off the rear tire and take out the popped tube, pull the hair thin piece of metal out of the tread that caused the flat, and put a new tube in. The repair was actually going well especially considering that this was the rear tire which is more difficult to work with than the front tire.

I pumped up the new tire and went to remove the pump and then I noticed that the valve on the new tube broke. Shit... I only carry one spare. I had to call team car for a rescue. Lotus picked me up and brought me back to home base.

I had actually bought some new tires back in July when they were on sale at Trek, so I figured I would actually install them now, since the tires I was riding on were getting pretty worn. Oh man the beads on the new tires are really stiff. I think becuase these are still the entry pricepoint race tires the beads were extremely stiff, in better quality tires I think they are a bit softer. It took me about one hour to get the tire on the rim and get everything back together.

So now it's 1pm. And hot... And now the wind has really kicked up.

Anyway I was determined to ride somewhere near 30 miles today, so I headed out again and struggled mightily becuase of the wind, but I came back at 29.2 miles for the day.

At my current pace I could hit 2,000 near Christmas if it doesn't rain. And like the song says, "It never rains in Southern California".

Soo Good But Soo Bad

We went to a friend's wedding today which was on the beach (totally cool benefit of living in San Diego). The wedding was pretty cool, but they had that all so enticing food lumpia. It's kind of like those commercials where they say, we bet you can't eat just one.

But then they not only had the regular fried lumpia, they had the banana lumpia, then the uncooked lumpia (never had that one before). Asst crudities, and chicken skewers later, the diet was all blown to hell.

Errrgh...

I was doing pretty well with my diet until today, but then I kind of thought today would be a bad day calorie wise because of the event. But at least the food was good, so it was kind of worth it. I hate it when I eat something that has a lot of calories that just isn't that good (ex: anything with Hershey chocolate (yuck), cheap pizza, most non-diet sodas).

I'm just trying to play it off as a day of rest and mega refueling. My last two rides have been pretty sluggish becuase I haven't had much in the tank to work off of since the good lunch on Tuesday.

Wipe Out

Ever since I went to see the podiatrist about my ankle about 6 weeks ago now, I have been slowly gaining weight. It's gotten to where I am getting uncomfortable in my current sized clothes and I'll be damned if I'm going to open that box of clothes that is the next size up.

So against my docs recommendations (and instructions) I started cycling again last week. I did a short ride at a slow pace on Wednesday just to get my legs under me, ad then went out Friday morning at a more brisk pace.

I usually don't ride in the morning, mainly becuase I am not a morning person. I usually prefer to ride in the late afternoon (in the 4-6pm range). While I was riding I had reached the half-way point of my ride which is just a u-turn at an intersection, and I totally ate it. This U-turn is at a construction site and the street sweeper had just watered the intersection. I totally was not thinking about that. I just made my usual turn at the usual speed, but becuase the surface was wet, my bike did not handle the turn as usual and it just slide out from under me. If anyone saw me, I'm sure they would have got a good chuckle from it. I thought it was pretty funny.

So now I have two pretty good scrapes on my left forearm and left shin (cyclist actually have a name for it, road rash). I don't really mind that I have the injuries (except that they hurt like a mother when I change the bandages) but now I have these bandages on, and I'll have to explain to my doc on Thursday that I was not following his instructions. Plus now I can't ride for about 2 weeks, I would guess, until the wounds heal more.

Oh well, maybe I'll go and get my finger caught in a door today so I can't type of write for a few weeks too... That would just fit into my year perfectly.