Its actually been the best part of 10 days since I’ve managed to get out on the bike and I’ll admit I’m finding it difficult to fit everything in. The closer it gets to the wedding; the more bits and pieces need sorting. The closer it gets to the bike ride; the longer the rides I need to be undertaking. Add to this the day job which is always busy and I find myself incredibly short on time! Ultimately, I suppose, something was always likely to give.
The past few weeks I’ve struggled to find the time and energy to fit everything in and have ended up taking a little bit of a breather from the training – both in the gym and on the bike. It was only on Sunday, when I made my excuses to not go out (while Hollie managed to do a 12-mile run training for her marathon), that it started sink in how much I’ve taken my foot off the pedals (excellent pun intended) and how much work I still have to do. I’m now having to deal with the guilt and frustration of my laziness, the subsequent falling behind on my training and the faltering wedding diet!
But enough of this negativity. Allow me to share with you the update from the last training I did...
The last time I headed out on the bike was 2nd March. It was a wet and miserable morning, but the plan was to get in 30 miles. Unfortunately after about 26 miles I got a puncture.
I pulled over, as did the guys I was cycling with. Feeling a little guilty for stopping everyone else, I got to work on changing the inner tube. I say I – it was more a ‘we’. And when I say ‘we’ I really mean Kyle.
I’ve changed a few inner tubes in my time but fortunately I haven’t had to do this for almost a year. To be honest, I wasn’t the quickest at it even when I had regular practice. Fortunately, Kyle is a clever guy and good at DIY. Yes, I consider changing an inner tube DIY. He confidently flipped the bike over, popped the wheel out and cracked on with removing the inner tube. It wasn’t until he was covered in grease and dirt that it occurred to him how little I was doing! Realising this might be a little unfair on him he handed over to me. I pretended to know exactly what I was doing and jammed the new inner tube back in (painfully slowly, highlighting how bad both my cycling maintenance and DIY skills are) ready to inflate before finishing off the last few miles of our ride.
I reached for the hand pump to get to work inflating the new inner tube before I was stopped and offered a CO2 injector. Now I don’t know if you’ve seen these CO2 injectors before but they are incredible! What would take me a good 5 minutes of using a mini hand pump took this canister 2 seconds. Such a powerful little tool - so powerful in fact that the new inner tube exploded. Back to square one!
Losing another inner tube was not ideal, but equally it was no cause for concern – I always carry a spare. Be prepared and all that jazz. I delved in to my cycle bag and pulled out the spare inner tube, only to find it was actually the last inner tube I had removed after a puncture, which for some strange reason I hadn’t chucked out.
One of the things I love about cycling as a team is that when I fall victim to my own lack of planning / stupidity, it is unlikely that everyone else will have been as ill-prepared. Given how long we had just spent trying to get this sorted, I knew I’d be able to borrow an inner tube from one of the guys I was with. As expected, they kindly obliged.
So once again the tyre came off, inner tube came out, new inner tube went in (almost as painfully slowly as the first attempt), before being quickly inflated with the CO2 injector. Fortunately this time there were no further issues and moments later the wheel was back on, the bike was the right way up and we were on our way.
Getting a puncture is never fun, but I felt good now. Smug in fact. I had a feel-good buzz after a successful bit of manual labour / DIY (yes, I’m sticking to this being DIY), and we were back on our way. Overly proud of myself for such a small task that was largely undertaken by someone else, I noticed another little positive. While this shambles of an inner tube change had taken place, the clouds had departed and the sun was shining. What a great way to get this ride back underway! Well it would have been if we weren’t out of time. Places to go, people to see. You know how it is.
It was time to head home. It might not have been the end of the ride I was hoping, but I was determined to at least enjoy the last couple of miles in this glorious weather! I put my sunglasses on... and felt a sharp pain in the side of my head. Somehow, I had snapped the leg on my sunglasses in two. It felt like someone was pushing the tip of a pen in to the side of my head. Less than pleasant.
After 27 miles, 3 inner tubes and one pair of sunglasses we were home. 3 miles short of the 30 miles we had intended, but at least we had made some progress from the previous ride.
So that was the last time I made it out on the bike. Since my realisation this past weekend that I am now really far behind with my training I’ve aimed to get out every day. Unfortunately it seems we are now being greeted by Storm Gareth who seems to largely disagree with my plans! Looks like its back to the gym for me…
Days until Velo Birmingham & Midlands: 60
Total Miles Trained: 48.3
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