An hour and five minutes into our one hour bike ride today, we'd cycled for 32 minutes. Sigh. If this sounds familiar then either you have had your own run of bad luck or you remember last Saturday. It wasn't the wind this time (thank gawd). No, today it was a flat tire. Normal enough I suppose. Have I mentioned that I'm not the most mechanical girl around? We finally got my bike tire off, the flat changed, and the wheel back on with only minor cursing as my gears and chain decided to be wonky for ten minutes. And then it started to rain. At least it was warm. (It is hard to complain even in a tiny way about the rain. We need it sooooo badly in this drought. But sweet lima beans! I couldn't see, I thought my tires would slip out from underneath me, and I KNOW the cars who can barely see me in good light are just waiting to have an excuse to mow me down!) I finally begin to feel as comfortable as I'm going to get chugging along on the slickery two lane road when what comes thundering along? Two sheriff's - lights blazing, sirens screaming. The cars (and our two bikes and even a runner) all hurriedly pulled over. Have I mentioned the lack of shoulder or the sloped edges or perhaps the deep ditch on the sides of the road? Yeah. It was just that kind of day.
The bike is the most challenging aspect of triathlon for me. There seems to be quite the array of technical things that can (and do!) go wrong. It's such a relief to get to the run. It's so much harder for me to fall off my feet than it is for me to fall off my bike. (Watch me have to eat my words tomorrow.) Still - we got our ride in. Soggy and strained, but safe. Hope when I make the rounds everyone else is feeling better and got some good training in. Peace.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
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2 comments:
Good for you on sticking it out! Really, all of those things (wind, flat tire, rain, the need to pull over for an emergency) could happen during a race, too, so good to go through while training, I think. And though swimming is much more of a struggle for me than cycling, I have gone through many of the same things you mentioned. Next time it rains, you get a flat, etc., it won't be as bad.
KEEP IT UP!!!
The bike is tough for me too. I feel a little out of control on the bike nad it always seems harder than it "should" be.
Way to stick it out! It is funny but for a lot of triathletes swimming is usually their favorite or they hate it. There isn't a lot of ambivalence when it comes to the swim. You know what side of the fence I am on!
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