6 hours outside, 5 hours of fun

That was my ride yesterday, and it felt like I was in Colorado!!  It was about 20F out when I left the house and warmed up to about 27F.  The wind was blowing at 20mph.  It wasn’t so bad because I dressed warm.  At times, I felt overdressed.  I was doubling the fun, wearing 2 pairs of bike shorts. 🙂

The ride was pretty uneventful… until I flatted.  I must have gone through a patch of goatheads when I was blinded by the ice/snowstorm on Friday because there were a bunch of thorns in my tire when I felt the inside. I thought, “No prob, I have a spare tube and my awesome Topeak pump.”  After wrestling with my tire, which was very tight on my DT Swiss rims, I freed it, and pulled out the punctured tube.  I semi-inflated my spare tube to give it some shape, when all the air rushed out very quickly.  I tried again – you know, maybe I was accidentally pushing on the presta valve; to no avail, the tube had a hole in it.  “Good thing I have a patch kit.”  I pulled it out, and my money flew out of my pocket down the road.  I started chasing after it because it was 2 out of the 3 dollars I had. I preceded to patch the hole and thought I was in business.  I put the patched tube in the tire and got it all fixed up and inflated it.  20 seconds later, it was flat again.  I called my dad and warned him that I may need some  help, but that I was going to walk to a bike shop which was maybe 2 miles away.

Fortunately, I was broken down by my old hood, so I knew where the closest shop was.  It involved walking to the UNM campus and through it – a trip down memory lane (weird to think I graduated from there almost 4 years ago), down Central and into Bike World. I used to go there about 5 years ago – they are located right down the street from where a long-time boyfriend lived. Lots of good memories in that area – like a flavorful wine. You can really taste it. I had 3 bucks in my pocket and was hoping the guys working there would give me a tube and I could come back later and pay them for the other half of it. They were so sweet that they took the remaining 3 bucks I owed out of their tip jar to help me out, and put sealant in the tube to keep me from breaking down again. THANK YOU!! I think the guy’s name was Mark, and I didn’t catch the other guy’s name. They saved me, like superman. Funny how something as small and insignificant as a piece of inflatable rubber can be so big. After some chit chat, I was on my way again and tried to avoid going off road since I didn’t have a spare anymore. My legs felt good yesterday, and now riding back to back 4-5 hour days is not an issue. I remember just 1.5 months ago when riding 2.5 hours a day made me tired and sore.

LESSON LEARNED: Take more than 3 bucks on a ride. More like 10 or 20…

Another highlight of my ride, and this time, good, was running into Mr. Matt Turgeon on Tramway. I was doing one of my low RPM intervals, and he flipped around and was on a singlespeed road bike. That is hard core!!!

I am finishing out my 22 hour training week today with a 4.5 hour ride. I was hoping to do it all on trails, but they are still pretty icy and I don’t want to deal with anymore problems after the last 2 days!! See ya later!