Training Update 3-24-08

Last week was a wash as far as training goes. I only managed to get on the bike 3 times covering 96 miles. I didn't want to risk getting sick again so I opted to catch up on sleep instead of riding a couple times. I managed a short ride before work on Wed followed by a long 4 hour ride on Thurs with a little bit of climbing. Yesterday ended up being another short climbing ride preceded by an hilarious train wreck that all started with a faulty valve adapter.

I scored a pair of Mavic Cosimic Carbones wheels off craigslist last year. I have no business riding Cosimc Carbones. They are way above my riding and price level, but I got them for the same price as a pair of entry level road wheels! Their deep dish aerodynamic profile gains me 1 to 2 gears at speed in the flats, but at the cost of needing a tube with a very long valve stem. I have some adapters that screw on so I can use normal tubes, but for some reason both stopped working yesterday morning preventing me from putting air in a flat rear tire. I tried for an hour to figure out why and eventually gave up. The mechanic at the bike shop couldn't figure it out either, but luckily I was able to pick up some long stemmed tubes. After burning almost 2 hours of the 3 I had to ride, Jo and I decided to do a quick climb up Flagstaff road in Boulder.

The climb up Flagstaff was great. The air was filled with smells of spring in Colorado, a mix of pine needles, sage, snow, and sandstone. The collision between the warm sun and crisp mountain air filled was invigorating. I was able to put my time shortage frustration and enjoy the moment and be grateful to ride with my girlfriend. By the top I was getting short on time so we split up and hammered the descent. It was super fun, but sand and melting snow made the hairpin turns precarious. I passed a half dozen cars on the way down. On the last turn of the hill I felt the ominous slack in the rear end that could only mean a flat tire. I found a piece of glass embedded in a 1/2 inch gash in my rear tire. I made my time crunch even worse yet I blowing up my spare by over zealously inflating it too quickly. Novice mistake! Argh. Luckily Jo came to the rescue and buried herself, riding hard to get to the truck, drive up and rescue me so I could get to work on time.