After I posted my Thursday post on Friday, I decided not to do my Friday post and take away from a more heart felt post. I had planned to post about goal setting for next season, I'll do that sometime next week.
Friday went decently. I ate very healthy. 206 lbs at the beginning and end of the day. After work I went for a 800m swim with pull drills (forearm and . Then for a planned 90 minute easy spin. With the sun setting I decided to try to cut it down to 60 minutes. Just after leaving the house, the Garmin dies. I have no idea how long I rode. I went for a leisurely ride around town. I kept hearing a ticking noise that sounded like it was in my front wheel but I couldn't figure out what it was. That evening I was in a great mood, feeling happy for getting my feelings off my chest in the earlier post. I started collecting my stuff for my transition bag. I planned to pack it completely, but since my new tri suit wasn't here yet I thought I might want to go for a run and a swim in it once it came. I just gathered most of the stuff. I used triathlon.racelist.com to come up with the list. I lubed my chain too. I finished and was checking over the bike and noticed the rear wheel was so out of true it was rubbing brake pad. I adjusted the brakes but to get it not to touch I had to loosen so much they wouldn't engage. I decided to think over my options over night. Knew I didn't have the money to take it to the shop and not sure I had the time.
Saturday morning, feeling strong, confident, and positive. I woke up, grabbed my Park Tools Big Blue Book and decided that I would see if I could true the wheel myself. I followed the directions. It was moving to the left, so I found the center of the problem and looked for the loose right spoke. Found it! Gave it two 90 degree turns, but it was still loose. I looked down and realized it was broken! Is this an OMEN? Called the bike shop and they said it would be $2 to fix. I can do that.
My plan was to clean the house then go for a 800m swim and a 3 mile walk. I decided to go get my pre-race stuff out of the way and clean Saturday night to keep my mind off stuff. Went to Wal-Mart (the devil) and got a runner/welcome mat. This was a tip given to me to use in place of a towel on the ground. Then I went for a
While they replaced the spoke, while they worked I looked at new bikes. I found the Giant Defy 2, compact double, carbon fork, carbon seat post, and Shimano Tiagra shifting. A huge step up in components from the Defy 3 and only 200 more. At 1099 it's not too much of a stretch for me. CB was in a good mood and decided to make some calls to see if she could buy it for me as an early Christmas present. It didn't work out, but that's ok. I am still in a decent mood.
The bike mechanic called me to the back and asked me how old the wheel was. He told me all my spokes will probably start breaking because of age, he said he would trust this wheel to ride on. After he got it put together he told me I needed a new tire. I knew I needed a new tire, it has a red warning track showing. He asked how many miles the race was and told me he wouldn't trust it for more that 10. This hurt my feelings. I knew part of the course had a rough roads.
Since we were out I decided we should save gas and go ahead and go to packet pick up. I had planned to do it at 5:00 to make the pre-race meeting at 5:30. We got to the exit for the race site and were only 7 miles away. It turns out there is a renaissance fair a half mile before the race site. It took us OVER AN HOUR to get 7 miles. Packet pick up took 3 minutes.
On the way home I convinced CB we should stop at REI and pick up a jersey or skinsuit just in case mine didn't get delivered. They were out of everything. They said they clearanced everything last week.
I was so upset I went to the five guys next door and ate fries and drank a diet coke. (ordinarily a five guys and a rei next to each other would be second to Disney World to me).
I got home and my new tri gear was not here. Now I have to replan my strategy. I was really looking forward to not having to swim in running shorts and not have to transition into a jersey.
The combination of this and my my bike put me in a REAL funk. As bad as it may make me look, I was near tears. I was torn up inside. I probably was also a bit of ass to CB. I went to the shower to calm down, it felt like I stood there for hours. I'm not even sure the water was still warm when I got done. I started repeating to myself its ok, its ok, its ok.
I got out, packed my transition bag, and sat down to dinner with CB. She made ziti for me. She kept trying to cheer me up, and I appreciate it but sometimes its better to just say nothing.
After dinner I headed to bed. Try to wake up feeling better given my mental state.
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