A Rolling Blog Post
Today was a doozy. We had a 5 hour ride in Boulder planned and it was a mellow ride for me, my last recoveryish day after the 1/2 IM this past weekend. There was 30 minutes of strength tempo work to be had, but mostly a time in the seat ride. Several days ago I wrote this:
I have 26 important days until Kona, and I know that any mistake I make will be punishable by the island gods.
Why oh why don't I listen to myself?
A little background: We have tubeless clincher tires on all three of Troy and I's bikes. They are pricey ($60), but for several years (up until the last few months) we have been flat-free. You have to carry a spare "tire" instead of just a tube, but it's seemed worth it. Three bikes, 6 tires, 3 spares...pricy. Well, I had a super huge flat the other day where I ran over a beer bottle and shredded my tire. When putting on my space I broke the valve stem off and had to call my MIL to pick me up. AND SO because nobody carries these special tires I ended up purchasing two normal tires with tubes for my training wheels on my TT bike at Excel Sports so that I could resume training that evening.
I had a friend ask to borrow a wheel the other day and I gave him my front wheel off my TT bike because it matched the one he wrecked. Totally my choice and I was happy to help my friend out. Little did I know this would be the beginning of a long chain of events.
So I pulled off my front wheel from my road bike and threw that on the TT bike. Now I am in a strange predicament. I have one tubeless tire that requires me to carry a spare TIRE, and one normal tire which requires me to carry a tube. I rode yesterday on it for 1:45, I didn't flat, but my pockets were full of tubes/tires.
This morning when I'm grabbing my bike from the garage I notice the front wheel is very low on air. Humm, must have a leak, but maybe not much. I am rushed as I just found out this issue and PIC is picking me up any moment so I grab a spare tubeless tire and throw it in.
We get to Boulder and here's how it goes:
- Discover huge leak in tubeless tire that is on my front wheel - Change tire to spare tire (so now I have no spare for a front flat) - Make everyone late to meet a friend we are riding with - Very flustered - Get reminder from coach about making good choices for Kona (like not loaning out a wheel that I needed) - Ride over to Left Hand Canyon - Reach down to grab water...realize I left without bottles (we are 45 min from Boulder) - Chuckie gives me one of his bottles, I feel lame - Get out of the saddle to climb and feel that the front tire is squishy - Realize front tire is flat - Try to call friends, no cell coverage - Leave group, tell them, "I need to fix this, I will be back" - Descend on flat front tire, ride 45 min to North Boulder bike shop - Don't have form of payment on me, so Troy texts me the CC number and expiration - Purchase new tire to match the back and 2 more tubes...just in case - Put new tire and tube on, pump up, hear Pshhhhhh sound - Shop guy comes over, we realize together that there is no RIM TAPE on this wheel. It's always had the tubeless tires on it, I never realized...whoever I bought it from decided rim tape didn't need to happen. - Shop guy put on rim tape - Change to second tube and attempt pumping up tire - everything holds and is good. - Use texted CC # to purchase two new waterbottles, two Luna Bars (my treat for going through he!!), another spare tube, and some hot pink tire helper getter outey thingees (you know what I mean) - Ride back to Left Hand Canyon - Start riding up and wonder if I missed Chuckie and PIC and they are on the flats - Climb climb climb, find Chuckie and PIC - Get in tempo work - Ride back wondering what the #$!*$#^@ is wrong with my tire luck. - Get the "focus" email from Chuckie
Yes, the whole day today I was like "I'm a rolling blog post". I was making so so so many rookie mistakes. From not taking care of my tire business, to loaning out something I needed, to forgetting my bottles, to not knowing I didn't have rim tape on my rim, and finally letting myself get flustered.
This is not a "tragic" day, it's one that I created with the decisions I made. I have to have more focus for the next few weeks and I need to make the right decisions because the wrong ones tend to start chain reactions and like I said, will only be punishable by the island gods.
And with that, I am off to bed.