August Totals

With only ten days to go the work is over. August was another hot month full of workouts. I didn't do all of them, I think that's impossible, but I did the quality workouts. It's all behind me at this point. What's done is done and there's nothing more I can do about it. I feel I've had a great summer of training and I'm ready to roll.

54 hours, 31 minutes of training

Swim - 21,675 meters ~ 13.5 miles

Bike - 520.72 miles

Run - 83.03 miles

In other news...On tap today was a two hour bike ride followed by a 15 minute transitional run. Last "big" workout. Things were going great. I was flying down the road. But things were different too. A road that I ride all the time had recently been chip-sealed and then I got caught in a rain deluge and had to take shelter in the garage of a house being built. At least the construction workers were nice and understanding. I was on my cool down, having just left my parents' house and heading home, when things started to feel different, squishy. Crap! A flat tire! I have, literally, ridden thousand of miles this year and this was my first flat tire. And being that my bike has already been to the shop for it's final tune-up before The Big One!!! my race wheels are already on. I've never changed a flat on my race wheels. Well, now's the time to figure this out. I took my water bottles off my bike and laid them down so they wouldn't leak out. I emptied the contents of my bike bag to get the tools and supplies I needed. Then I turned my bike over to inspect my back tire (why is it ALWAYS the back tire???) to see if I had punctured it. Sure enough, I found a small pebble had punctured through the tire into the tube. I dusted off the tire and then took it off the bike. This is where things got a little tough. I ride HED3 race wheels, which don't have spokes on them. So the pieces you use to take the tire off the wheel, which usually attaches to the spokes to make it a little easier, didn't work exactly the way I needed them to. Needless to say, though, I was able to get the tire off the wheel and continued changing the tube. I got everything situated, struggled to get the tire back on the wheel, and then tried to get the CO2 cartridge to fill up tube. But, it wasn't working. What? Why? I called Dave and he told me to hold onto the valve stem as I pushed up with the cartridge. Still wasn't working. Then I figured it out. Where was the bolt that goes on the valve stem? Crap! It was inside the tire. So I had to take half of the tire off the wheel again, take the valve stem out of the hole, take the stupid bolt off, and then redo my work. This time because my fingers were in so much pain from trying to get the tire back on the first time, struggled even more to get it on the second time. I was sweating like crazy!!! Finally, the last bit of tire got behind the rim and I was able to get the CO2 cartridge to work this time. I was worried about popping the tube, because it was the only one I had, so I filled it up just enough. Although it was okay, it was still a little squishy on the ride home. But, good job me!!! Hopefully, the flat tire is behind me and it won't happen again in a week. If it does, though, I'm confident in my abilities to get that sucker changed now!