7.6.13 Back to the Bike

I spent a couple days on the bike on Friday and Saturday.  When I got home from work, I went out on what was supposed to be an easy hour to ease my way back.  It was in the high 90s in the afternoon but shouldn't be a big deal on a short ride.  After about 28 minutes out, I heard a hiss coming from my front tire.  Great.  I pulled off of Spinks road just before FM 2499.  Pulled the wheel off and changed my tube on the side of the road.  I had a CO2 malfunction and didn't get enough air in my tube so I had to call my wife for help.  She brought me my pump and I headed back home.  My helmet and sunglasses were covered with fire ants.  That sucked big time and I started getting bites before I headed out.  Damn ants.  Altogether, not a great day.  My legs felt pretty good for the time I spent in motion but it was really hard to know based on my 30 minute stop to fix my tire.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/338320540

My neighbor Justin was going to ride with me on Saturday morning at 6am.  I needed between 2-3 hours and decided to play it by ear and see how I felt.  We went out toward Flower Mound and were able to avoid the construction on Heritage.  Once we got out to the country in Denton County, we decided to go north to Argyle and up to Hilltop road.  My legs felt pretty good through the first half of the ride and we stopped at a Subway before hitting the hill to refill our water.  I ate a quick snack and off we went.  Hilltop road did not seem all that bad after Lubbock and I was able to spin my way up fairly easily.  Hilltop seemed far more daunting prior to Lubbock.  Justin took us back through Lantana.  I haven't navigated my way back through there, so it was nice to do something different.  Once we reached Coppell and were about a mile from the house, my front tire started hissing.  Another flat tire, that sucks but it happened close to the house so we just walked home from there.  We covered a little over 50 miles in 3 hours so my work was done for the day.  I wanted the bike shop to see my wheel as is to try and determine what was going on.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/338320577

I took my wheel up to Bikes Plus and they found a huge cut in my tire that was all the way through.  I haven't had these tires for very long but it meant buying another one so $100 later, I was ready to go again.  At least I didn't do anything stupid.  I feel pretty fortunate to have made it through Buffalo Springs without a problem.