the tao of cycling: those p's again

Monday, July 6, 2009

those p's again

this morning my awesome new tire rode smoothly and beautifully, and I got a long, south and north ride in.
I chose my route based on access to help, as I was using an old patched tube and had not a single spare tube to throw in my bag and carry with me. yes, I know I just went through the whole "prior proper planning" drill, but there are times when circumstances just don't want to play along with my agenda.

this is how it all came to be:

last summer I bought 10 tubes from nashbar.com. these tubes are great: they have some self-sealing goo in them and seem to last forever. I went months between flats, and actually got tired of having all those spare tubes hanging around.
so I started giving them away.
here, I have one, don't go buy one, please, take one of mine!

here, happy father's day, go ride!

here, congratulations on graduating high school: use these tubes as you move forward along your path.

and then I got a flat.
then another one.
and then as I was replacing a tube I put a hole in the new one.
and next thing I know, it's sunday night in salt lake city ~ 6:45 pm ~ and I am tubeless. my front tire is ready to roll, and my back tire is brand-spanking new and . . . tubeless.
if you know where to go buy a road bike tube in salt lake city at 6:45 on a sunday evening, please let me know.

knowing I was in desperate need of a ride the next morning, I searched my garage for an old used road bike tube that just might be hanging around. eureka: I found two!
I pumped the first one up, and it wouldn't even hold air long enough for me to track down the hole.
the second one, however, plumped nicely and then spit all that air out of a little slice that was clearly visible. woo hoo!
I cleaned that section of the tube, dried it, roughed it up with my little sandpaper square, then slapped on a clear plastic patch and prayed.
(I also let it sit for a while, sending it good thoughts, letting the patch become one with the tube . . . )
after carefully placing the tube inside the tire, snapping the tire back into position, and pumping up said tube, I prayed again.
and this morning it was still tight and firm, and I hit the road for my much-needed ride.

staying close to cell phone service and potential shuttle drivers.

and this afternoon I ventured out to the bike shop, chatted with my favorite bike shop boy, and bought a handful of new tubes: one of which is already curled up snugly in the little pack on my bike.

because...... ppppppp.

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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.