Recover, Race, Recover

Wow, a week has passed since RAIN and my last blog entry. Time can really fly bye when you have to be an adult for a while.

Anyway, I finally got back out on the bike this past Friday. Five days after the big 160 mile RAIN, so I guess I can't call it a recovery ride. Plus, I was recruited as a last minute replacement for a team triathlon event and went out to hammer it. My summer has been spent focused on endurance events and Friday was my only chance to train, even though it should have been recovery. Are you following this crap?? The ride sucked. It was windy, rainy, and my legs were hurting. I had very tired and heavy legs, but I got in 30 miles.

On to Saturday. The event was a team tri and the bike portion was 24 miles of mostly flat rural roads in Central Illinois. Since this was a team tri each member needed to produce a max effort. No holding back or pacing. My job was to ride hard and fast. I did, for me, that is. I was hoping to maintain a 18 mph avg for the course. With no time trial training I thought this would be achievealbe, but still difficult.

I must say this Roadie had a lot of fun doing the team triathlon. I really enjoyed racing and the rush of passing people. I did very well, for me. I managed a 20.1 mph pace for the 24 miles with a time of 1:14. I kept my heart rate up with an average of 162 bpm. With no drafting and a head wind for 12 miles I was pleased with my results. There were plenty of studs at this event though. My time was 112th out of 270 riders.

I was back out on the road Sunday as the weather begged for it. I had no plans for distance or time or the flat rear tire at mile 15. My first flat and it had to be on the rear!! I carry what I thought was the needed items for such an event, but I was wrong.

I had no real trouble removing the tire and punctured tube. I checked the tire for any debris and it was clear. I inserted the new tube and all was going well. I have a fancy CO2 inflater and carry 3 CO2 cartridges. It appears I was carrying three bad cartridges. As soon as I installed them they shot out cold air and were done. Empty with nothing to give. One, two, three.........Nothing, no air in my tire at all.

"Honey, are you busy???" Luckily the best wife in the world agreed to run my floor pump out to me. After a 45 minute delay I was pumped up and headed back home on the bike. Yep, I didn't let it get me down and finished out a nice little 30 mile ride.

Doing the math I got in 80 plus miles this weekend. I have a metric century on my schedule for this coming weekend. It is crazy how much a 32 year old man can enjoy riding his bike. Later.