Subtitled: A story of blowing up.

First of all, I had plenty of warning that I shouldn't have taken a ride at all yesterday. With the temps near 80 though, I couldn't pass up the opportunity. A nice ride with over 2500 feet of climbing was planned.

Before I took off I decided to change my rear tire. Easy enough, except I ended up going through four tube changes before heading out the door! The first one I snapped off the top of the needle valve when I removed the pump connection. Didn't lose any air at first, until I decided to see if it would work without that top piece. On the first downward push of the pump handle the connector blew off the stem and all the air pfsssed out, the remaining needle valve nowhere to be found. Second one - pop! The tire/tube wasn't seated correctly and pinched the tube at near full inflation. Third one - again I snapped the needle valve off!!! This time I just left it alone and readied to roll when I began hearing a slow hiss of air. Crap. So I patched the tube with the pinch damage, mounted it correctly and 45 minutes after changing that tire I finally had a wheel I could ride with! Suddenly the longish ride I had planned had to be cut short. That sucked.

As a safety measure, two miles into the ride I stopped at a new bike shop to purchase a spare tube. They were having a bike build party in the back yard for a customer, with a grill busy cooking up a batch of burgers. They offered a burger with some macaronni salad, which I ate with relish. Not the condiment, but the act of enjoyment. That was the second sign that I shouldn't have continued riding. I should have just stayed and ate some more and talked bikes.

The route I took included a nice 4 mile long 800 foot climb up a picturesque canyon followed by a fast 2 mile descent on the other side. Ordinarily I do the route the opposite way. Going the way I went yesterday is somewhat deceptive because it's maybe 4 to 6% gradient the whole way, with a few steep sections over 10%. Climbing up a 5% grade is fun because you can keep it in the large chainring and power up like Jan Ullrich. Except I'm not Der Kaiser and sooner or later the chain has to drop to the small ring or I risk blowing up.

I was doing fine for the first 2 miles, but when the steepness kicked up, I continued in the big ring and kept the same speed (14/16mph). I thought I was doing fine. I could feel my heart beating quickly through the arteries and veins in my head and neck, when suddenly my heart simply said no mas. I overdid it. It was like the air going out of one of the innertubes from earlier. All incentive and ability to power anything just disappeared. All I had left was the ability to poke along in shock.

I thought I would be fine once I reached the top and coasted down the other side. There was still some 700 feet of up left before I got home, and I was sure I'd be my normal self after a bit of rest. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Heart, lungs and legs would have none of it. Took me an additional 10 minutes on top of my usual time to reach home. What really sucks is for the past 4 days I did that same route (both ways) in very good time. They were all good, fast and strong rides, all within my normal range of exertion and current fitness. Yesterday? I just sucked.

We all suck from time to time, right? Any good blow up stories out there?