the tao of cycling: and in conclusion.....

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

and in conclusion.....

this is it, I am now done.
there will be no more flats in my life.
SUSAN WILL NOT HAVE ANY MORE FLAT TIRES.
SUSAN IS DONE HAVING FLAT TIRES.

at least for a little while.

yes, the saga continues . . .

yesterday john said to me (I paraphrase) : you're going to change out that patched tube, aren't you? it probably won't hold up too long.
I responded: I am tired of changing tires. I will just let it happen whenever: at home, on the road, it really doesn't matter, it's a pain either way.
to which john replied: what happened to your prior proper planning??

don't you just hate it when the other person is right?

this morning I got up early, and was ready to leave by 5:35, excited to get up the canyon in the cool morning air. I'd eaten half a protein bar, had my arm warmers on and icy water bottle caged, sunglasses in my back pocket, front and rear lights on, and was ready to roll . . . until I saw that my rear tire was flat. flat. airless. deflated, collapsed, depleted, unfilled, empty, flat.
ARGH.
I was tempted to go back to bed.
I wavered.
coffee was a mere button-push away, and there was a cozy spot on the couch with a good book at the ready . . .
ARGH.
I flipped up the brake thingee, unscrewed the thingees on the widget that goes through the hub of the wheel and holds it to the fork, and pulled the wheel off the bike. my entire body and mind were resisting this activity, with waves of I don't want to be doing this energy flowing off me and circulating around my bike.
which added a good 15 minutes to the process, I'm sure.
most of that time was spent fighting with that brand-new super-tight tire, trying to detach it from its comfy little home. I eventually got one plastic tire lever under an edge, and spent the next 8 minutes trying to get the second one in and doing its job of untucking the rest of the tire.
sometimes I hate being female: I have never seen a guy struggle like I do with this part of the drill.
and everything eventually came off and got switched out and came back together, all the thingees back doing what they're supposed to be doing, and I tucked my tire levers back in my pack, washed my hands, pushed the "wake up" button on my cyclometer, and rolled up the beautiful early-morning canyon.

yes, john was correct. argh.
and yes, I am done with flats. fingers crossed.
and yes, this saga is finally complete.
whew.

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the Male Ego

The other day I was coming down a canyon in my drop bars (two years ago I would have said, 'what's a drop bar?'), working hard, when I came up on two guys who were also heading downhill but at a more leisurely pace. I passed them, said hello as I did so, and pulled back into the bike lane. a few minutes later they went flying past me, faces looking dead ahead, not a single bit of acknowledgment that I even existed on this planet let alone was involved in and enjoying the same sport they were.
I have to attribute this to the male ego. what else can it be? now I know we all have egos, myself included. and mine even shows its ridiculous little head once in a while, or perhaps more often. but the difference between mine and say, those of certain men on bicycles, is that I KNOW mine exists and I can LAUGH at mine. I know my ego was quite excited to pass those guys, and I could also smile because I knew if the men had really been working like I was, they would have kicked my butt down the hill.
I think I pissed them off.
and I'm sure I will be sharing with you much more of my thoughts about the male ego . . .

a little history

I was married, and I had a mountain bike which I rarely rode. we separated, I moved out, and four months later someone stole my bike. the next spring, 2005, I bought myself a new mountain bike. I rode occasionally, and in april 2006 I rode in my first century, the Cactus Hugger in St. George, Utah. I made it 54 miles on that mountain bike, and it took me about 6 hours. I think that included the rest stops where I prayed that someone would steal my bike again . . .
in june 2006 I started riding my mountain bike five mornings a week, a 45-55 minute loop that was intended to be all about exercise. and what I found was that I loved the quiet, peaceful morning full of bird chatter and barely breaking sunrises. by that fall I was hooked, and began considering the purchase of a road bike. I rode up emigration canyon for the first time that Labor Day of 2006, panting and plowing along on my trusty (heavy) bike, and a month later I was the proud owner of my own road bike: I had become a two-bike girl!
a 17-week-long "power camp" over the winter and a handful of new friends kept bicycling front and center in my life, and when spring of 2007 rolled around I was ready to hit the pavement. I rode my first century the end of april, when I again went to St. George and completed that Cactus Hugger. it took me about 7 hours, but this time I rode the entire 100 miles with about 9300 feet of vertical gain. woo hoo!
I started riding canyons around our area, emigration and millcreek, city creek, big cottonwood, little mountain and big mountain, and once--yes, only once--little cottonwood.
then in september of 2007, I rode from Logan, Utah, to Jackson, Wyoming, in the slightly infamous LOTOJA race. I rode, I did not race. and I completed the thing, crediting my good training buddies, the incredibly perfect weather, my support team, and an amazing convergence of all things positive in the universe.
I put in about 3500 miles last season, and as of today, july 19, 2008, I have about 1700 in, adding to it every day.
I have again signed on to ride the LOTOJA race, and my goal is to have just somewhere near as great a ride as I did last year. oh, and to have someone fun to talk with along the way as I got incredibly bored last year . . . star valley is still a nightmare scene in my biking memories . . .
and here is a picture of the machine that has helped me reclaim my life.