Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Broken Spoke

I was really bummed about napping through my riding time on Sunday so I woke up early today to go for the ride I should have done on Sunday. About a mile into I hit a big bump, my kick stand swiveled and started hitting my wheel. I stopped, pulled the kickstand back out and continued with my ride. I could tell that my wheel wasn't true so I knew it was going to need to go to the shop, but I continued on anyway.

I used my heart rate monitor as my guide for where to gear and it was much lower than normal. I kept looking down to see if my back tire was flat because the bike just felt sluggish. I was really trying to train properly so I stopped for stretching breaks and was only about 15 miles out when I had to turn around. I was thinking, "Man, how am I ever going to keep up with my dad on RAGBRAI if this is my proper riding pace?"

Of course, when I got home, I looked at my back tire and a spoke was broken, the left brake pad was hooked on the rim, and the right brake was rubbing intermittently. No wonder I was going so slow.

Over lunch I took my bike to my local bike shop, Coventry Cycle Works, and they fixed it in about a half an hour while I grabbed some lunch. The mechanic explained that I had installed my brake pad a little too low and it had created a little lip that that gotten stuck on the rim. I happily paid a dollar for my spoke, plus labor, some new brake pads and some lube.

With no time to spare, I was bike on my bike again climbing up for my massage with Taya on Mt. Tabor. Exhausted from a whirlwind day, I collapsed onto the table in that state of physical exhaustion that every athlete knows and loves.

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