Snot Rocket Queen

People sometimes like to focus on the negative aspects of getting older but one of my favorite aspects of getting older is you just stop giving a you know what about what other people think.  I already grew up pretty immune to being embarrassed because my mom always valued being yourself no matter how unique that was and lived by this therefore always marching to the beat of her own drum.  I learned pretty quickly that I better stop caring too or I was going to have a very tumultuous life! :-)

Finally after being sick for a few days I started to feel better on Sunday.  I decided to take advantage and go out for a ride!  However, this meant I was SNOTTY but I just didn't care.  Sure it was gross for me and perhaps anyone who might have unsuspectingly ridden up behind me but who cares I was free and out enjoying a glorious spring day!  I was so proud of myself for what I thought was a perfect snot rocket because I didn't feel any blowback and it didn't land anywhere on my handlebars until I opened my hand and ewwww it was all in between my fingers, but hey that's what jerseys are for right wiping!?!  The other fun part of being sick at the same time your son is sick is that you don't get to care about what is happening to you, you just pull up your britches and you take care of your sick child.  Which meant instead of getting rest I was taking him to the Dr. and working from home to make up lost hours.  This also meant that once I got him to bed I was going straight to bed too instead of you know doing stuff like taking care of my personal hygiene.  It was too warm to get away with leggings so I went in bike shorts and showed off my wonderful hairy legs!  Again don't care! ;-)  For half a second I thought they'll just think I'm a guy, oh but wait, in this sport guys shave their legs too.  I'll just have to ride so fast that my legs will be a blur and no one will notice!  Go!  Ok then there was the fact that I couldn't remember the last time I had washed my hair!  I thought to myself well that's an easy one you'll have a helmet on to cover that up!  There's nothing stopping me from this ride!  Note to self: just don't take your helmet off at any point in the ride and try to whip it around a la sexy librarian or it will just stick to one side of your face.  Easy enough.  So I was fully enjoying this ride. 

Then about mile 10 just as I was about to hit the super fun downhill I noticed I could feel the road a lot more than I normally can.  I stopped and sure enough I had a flat rear tire!  New fancy bike I realized I hadn't changed a flat on this one yet!!  I tried to remove the wheel and felt like the brakes were stopping me.  The brakes on this one don't have a quick release and are in a different spot.  So I assumed I needed an allen wrench to release them which I didn't have.  Sadly I called my dad to pick me up all the while I could hear my son in the background yelling "where are you mom?"  Turns out he got the wheel off no problem I was just too scared to hurt my fancy new bike. Ahhh!!  Well it turns out I wouldn't have been able to remove the extension on the bike valve without pliers so I didn't feel so bad and add to the list of things I now need to carry.  Also turns out there was something wrong with the tire and/or tube.  Because it kept bulging out about to pinch the tube.  So long story short I didn't get to finish my ride which is ok since I was still recovering.  But one thing I do care about is not knowing how to fix my own bike!  I will make sure I can handle this on my own next time. 

But now I also am a little closer to my decision of if I "need" a road bike in addition to my tri bike.  Because some days you just need to ride on something you aren't afraid to beat up!  And one can never have enough bikes right?!?!!!   Who's with me?

Happy Training!