[COLOR= #0000ff]Hey, y'all![/COLOR]
[COLOR= #0000ff]After 8 solid weeks of rain, Dear Hubby ran into the room today to announce that there was the tiniest bit of sunshine peeking through, and maybe we could get a ride in before the next storm hit. He said that he had to replace a tube on his bike, and then we could go. So I hurried to put on all my layers (which seems to take a long time, to me) and ran to the garage -- only to see him pumping up a tube and complaining about something wrong with the other one. He finally gets his tube and tire on, and discovers mine need some air too. Okay, a quick fix. [/COLOR]
[COLOR= #0000ff]We go half a block and he gets a phone call. Ordinarily we don't answer phones on our rides, but he was selling something on Craigslist, and hoped it was a buyer. It was, and the guy said he would be here in an hour. Okay, so we plan to shorten our ride and make it back by then. [/COLOR]
[COLOR= #0000ff]To get to the bike path we take, there is one really awkward turn. It's shaped like a 5 on top of a backward C. So you enter the bottom of the backward C, take the curve around it, then do a sharp right turn onto the bottom of the 5, squeezing between a fence on the right and a tall curb on the left. I've done it many times. But today it had been raining, the pavement and leaves were slick, and I somehow clipped the right edge of the sidewalk with my wheel, and down I went. Hubby was close behind me -- too close, it turns out, and I fell into his front wheel and then the ground. He was partially upright, with his left leg pinned under the bike, on top of which I leaned/lay, with my left leg pinned under my bike, unable to find any footing for my right leg to help me get somewhere. It must have looked pretty funny, our trying to untangle ourselves and get back up without sliding down again. My knee tweaked just a little and my backside was wet, but I didn't care, I was going to go on a darned bike ride! So off we continued.[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #0000ff]We managed to go about 2.5 miles, and I hear this loud POP. At first I thought it was the car beside me back-firing, and then I thought maybe they were just making noise to try to startle us. But I turned around, and there was Frustrated Hubby with a totally blown TIRE. Not the tube, mind you. Something happened -- he was muttering about a worn spot -- and that tire looked like Freddy Krueger had gotten hold of it. Tubes we had with us. Tires? No. Sigh... [/COLOR]
[COLOR= #0000ff]So, since he's the faster cyclist, he took my bike and headed for home to get the car so he could come back and get me and his bike, and we could be back in time to sell our recumbent exercycle to the Craigslist guy. (We're selling it because I bought a trainer for my bike, instead.) So home we come, with wet backsides and a minimally tweaked knee, after only 2.5 miles of what I had really hoped would be at least 10. [/COLOR]
[COLOR= #0000ff]I shrugged off my frustration, peeled off most of the layers, got my bike into the trainer, and off I went for an hour while I watched a movie. For the first 45 minutes I rode my normal speed during the movie, but with every commercial I upped the speed some; and since they very often had 5 or 6 commercials in a row, by the time the movie came back on I was more than ready to slow down to my normal speed again. I kind of consider the commercials my sprints, lol. And I learned I can breathe every bit as heavy and sweat every bit as much on a trainer as on my bike outside. It's just not as much fun. But I did it.[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #0000ff]So I managed to get an hour's ride in today.... eventually. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/rolleyes.gif[/COLOR] At least we sold the recumbent!
[COLOR= #0000ff]Just wanted to vent, y'all. Have a good one. [/COLOR]
[COLOR= #0000ff]After 8 solid weeks of rain, Dear Hubby ran into the room today to announce that there was the tiniest bit of sunshine peeking through, and maybe we could get a ride in before the next storm hit. He said that he had to replace a tube on his bike, and then we could go. So I hurried to put on all my layers (which seems to take a long time, to me) and ran to the garage -- only to see him pumping up a tube and complaining about something wrong with the other one. He finally gets his tube and tire on, and discovers mine need some air too. Okay, a quick fix. [/COLOR]
[COLOR= #0000ff]We go half a block and he gets a phone call. Ordinarily we don't answer phones on our rides, but he was selling something on Craigslist, and hoped it was a buyer. It was, and the guy said he would be here in an hour. Okay, so we plan to shorten our ride and make it back by then. [/COLOR]
[COLOR= #0000ff]To get to the bike path we take, there is one really awkward turn. It's shaped like a 5 on top of a backward C. So you enter the bottom of the backward C, take the curve around it, then do a sharp right turn onto the bottom of the 5, squeezing between a fence on the right and a tall curb on the left. I've done it many times. But today it had been raining, the pavement and leaves were slick, and I somehow clipped the right edge of the sidewalk with my wheel, and down I went. Hubby was close behind me -- too close, it turns out, and I fell into his front wheel and then the ground. He was partially upright, with his left leg pinned under the bike, on top of which I leaned/lay, with my left leg pinned under my bike, unable to find any footing for my right leg to help me get somewhere. It must have looked pretty funny, our trying to untangle ourselves and get back up without sliding down again. My knee tweaked just a little and my backside was wet, but I didn't care, I was going to go on a darned bike ride! So off we continued.[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #0000ff]We managed to go about 2.5 miles, and I hear this loud POP. At first I thought it was the car beside me back-firing, and then I thought maybe they were just making noise to try to startle us. But I turned around, and there was Frustrated Hubby with a totally blown TIRE. Not the tube, mind you. Something happened -- he was muttering about a worn spot -- and that tire looked like Freddy Krueger had gotten hold of it. Tubes we had with us. Tires? No. Sigh... [/COLOR]
[COLOR= #0000ff]So, since he's the faster cyclist, he took my bike and headed for home to get the car so he could come back and get me and his bike, and we could be back in time to sell our recumbent exercycle to the Craigslist guy. (We're selling it because I bought a trainer for my bike, instead.) So home we come, with wet backsides and a minimally tweaked knee, after only 2.5 miles of what I had really hoped would be at least 10. [/COLOR]
[COLOR= #0000ff]I shrugged off my frustration, peeled off most of the layers, got my bike into the trainer, and off I went for an hour while I watched a movie. For the first 45 minutes I rode my normal speed during the movie, but with every commercial I upped the speed some; and since they very often had 5 or 6 commercials in a row, by the time the movie came back on I was more than ready to slow down to my normal speed again. I kind of consider the commercials my sprints, lol. And I learned I can breathe every bit as heavy and sweat every bit as much on a trainer as on my bike outside. It's just not as much fun. But I did it.[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #0000ff]So I managed to get an hour's ride in today.... eventually. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/rolleyes.gif[/COLOR] At least we sold the recumbent!
[COLOR= #0000ff]Just wanted to vent, y'all. Have a good one. [/COLOR]
