A Bit Flat.
I had done a few miles at intensity the previous two days, and I was starting to feel the weariness around my eyes. I had the bike on the car, the bag full of kit sitting by my desk, and the sky was blue. I really couldn't say no.
As I walked out, I checked which way the headquarters flag was blowing. It was one of the rare days where I would get a tailwind on the way out. From the way the flag was stretched out, a pretty good one.
I went with it, pushing harder than normal and hitting waypoints far faster than I usually do. I almost felt like I had some talent. I knew I had to turn around and face the music eventually, but I burned the matches anyway. I'd put it in the small chainring and spin easy on the way back- I had extra time thanks to the enhanced speed of the outbound trip.
Sure enough, I hit a wall as I turned around. I ran out of gears, but that didn't prevent me for periodically looking for more. I ducked low, trying to reduce my profile any way I could. I cursed the small bit of flapping jersey on my shoulder for its aerodynamic inefficiencies, conveniently overlooking the veritable barn door my midsection presented. I crouched lower, chewing on the stem until my back screamed in agony and my knees bruised my gut.
Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, I hit a sharp rock left behind by a dump truck. I couldn't hear the air escaping over the wind, but the tire rapidly went squishy. I found a semi-decent place out of the wind and set about fixing it. Instead of messing around with patching the tube, I opted to use the spare in my saddle bag. As I was on a bike without a frame pump, I used a CO2 cartridge. Because the stem on the new tube was slightly short on the 50mm carbon wheels and leaked a bit, I ended up using two cartridges. Because of the leakage, my pinky got a little chilly.
Eventually I got the tire filled up and returned to the road for the last couple miles. I was dragging when I pulled up to the car. It took a few minutes before I could summon the energy to put the bike up on the rack. My pinky ached. My whole body ached. I just wanted to go home and go to sleep for a couple days.
Once home, I pulled the bike off the rack and noted how squared off the rear tire was. I had replaced it only a couple months before, but I guess I had worn it down more than I thought. Thanks to my chronic online shopping disorder, I have a whole cabinet of tires and tubes, so I decided to replace the tires with some fancy ones impregnated with something called "Graphene" that are supposed to reduce rolling resistance by like 1000 watts and stick to wet, vertical surfaces. As long as they not paper thin...
The next day my pinky had a huge blister on it from the CO2 cartridges, which ruptured as I was moving around some safes. That was fun. I wrapped it up and went out for another ride, so my level of fatigue and self-loathing was increased. Afterwards I edited my training schedule to immediately incorporate a rest day.
I was flat.
As I walked out, I checked which way the headquarters flag was blowing. It was one of the rare days where I would get a tailwind on the way out. From the way the flag was stretched out, a pretty good one.
I went with it, pushing harder than normal and hitting waypoints far faster than I usually do. I almost felt like I had some talent. I knew I had to turn around and face the music eventually, but I burned the matches anyway. I'd put it in the small chainring and spin easy on the way back- I had extra time thanks to the enhanced speed of the outbound trip.
Sure enough, I hit a wall as I turned around. I ran out of gears, but that didn't prevent me for periodically looking for more. I ducked low, trying to reduce my profile any way I could. I cursed the small bit of flapping jersey on my shoulder for its aerodynamic inefficiencies, conveniently overlooking the veritable barn door my midsection presented. I crouched lower, chewing on the stem until my back screamed in agony and my knees bruised my gut.
Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, I hit a sharp rock left behind by a dump truck. I couldn't hear the air escaping over the wind, but the tire rapidly went squishy. I found a semi-decent place out of the wind and set about fixing it. Instead of messing around with patching the tube, I opted to use the spare in my saddle bag. As I was on a bike without a frame pump, I used a CO2 cartridge. Because the stem on the new tube was slightly short on the 50mm carbon wheels and leaked a bit, I ended up using two cartridges. Because of the leakage, my pinky got a little chilly.
Eventually I got the tire filled up and returned to the road for the last couple miles. I was dragging when I pulled up to the car. It took a few minutes before I could summon the energy to put the bike up on the rack. My pinky ached. My whole body ached. I just wanted to go home and go to sleep for a couple days.
Once home, I pulled the bike off the rack and noted how squared off the rear tire was. I had replaced it only a couple months before, but I guess I had worn it down more than I thought. Thanks to my chronic online shopping disorder, I have a whole cabinet of tires and tubes, so I decided to replace the tires with some fancy ones impregnated with something called "Graphene" that are supposed to reduce rolling resistance by like 1000 watts and stick to wet, vertical surfaces. As long as they not paper thin...
The next day my pinky had a huge blister on it from the CO2 cartridges, which ruptured as I was moving around some safes. That was fun. I wrapped it up and went out for another ride, so my level of fatigue and self-loathing was increased. Afterwards I edited my training schedule to immediately incorporate a rest day.
I was flat.
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