"A Comedy Of Errors" or "The Day My Bike Rode Me"

My brother-in-law is getting married this weekend so I was scheduled to pick Liz up from work at 2:00pm to head out of town. I worked a very short day and decided I would squeeze in a quick bike ride before loading up the car and heading out. I planned to ride hard and see if I could get to Rte. 66, ride a lap, and get home in 30 minutes. From the very beginning, I made one bad decision after another and ended up on the worst bike ride of my life.

Mistake #1: Before I left the house, I decided to leave my cell phone at home. I wasn't wearing any pockets and my phone doesn't fit in my saddle bag because my spare tube takes up too much space. I figured I wasn't going far from home and I was wearing my RoadID so I would be fine.

Mistake #2: I have a small hand pump attached to my bike in case of a flat tire. It isn't much good for high psi tires though and on my last couple of rides, the handle has slipped down and been annoying. I keep compressed air in my saddle bag, so the pump is redundant and as I was leaving the driveway, I decided to turn around and leave the pump at home.

At first, I was cruising pretty well and felt good about pushing the pace. It felt good to get my legs moving hard again and I was looking forward to getting 8 or 9 fast miles in.
I was almost 2 miles from home when I stopped for a red light at an intersection. I was at a complete stand-still for almost a minute when my back tire very suddenly and very noisily went completely flat.

At first, I thought this was only mildly annoying and it would just mean I wouldn't get to ride as far as I'd hoped. I started taking the wheel off and grabbed my spare tube from my saddle bag, planning to be back on the road in a few minutes.

Mistake #3: A couple rode by on their bikes and asked if I needed any help. By then, I almost had the new tube in and the tire back on the wheel so I told them thanks, but I was fine. I let them ride away.

Shortly after the couple disappeared, I tried to fill my newly repaired tire using my compressed air. It gave a very brief hiss of air before falling silent and proving itself completely worthless. I had no air.

I was almost two miles from home and starting to worry that I was going to be late meeting Liz. I lifted my bike onto my shoulder and turned to walk home but I was wearing my cycling shoes with metal clips on the bottoms. Every step made the sound of metal grinding on concrete and I was worried I would ruin my shoes

Mistake #4: I decided to take my shoes off and try hoofing it barefoot. I was doing fine until I walked up the hill on Central. By the time I got to the top, my feet were developing some nasty blisters. I slipped my shoes back on and clip-clopped my the last mile home.

My 30 minute bike ride turned into a 75 minute ride/walk that left me with sore shoulders and blisters the size of quarters on the balls of my feet. I made it home just in time to take a quick shower and load up the car but I spent the rest of the day with very tender feet.

Friday
Goal For The Day: Bike Ride.
Distance: 1.73 Miles.
Time: 6:28. 16.0mph Avg.
Route: To 109 & Central on the bike... back on foot.
Conditions: 86 degrees. 12:00PM.

Notes: A lot of lessons learned today. My blisters should be alright in a day or two and I wasn't late so no harm, no foul. The weather has been great!

Daily Miles:
Blog Totals:
  Run - 160.84 Miles.
  Bike - 98.53 Miles.
  Swim - 7,200+ meters.