The Bike

I wanted to post about my long run yesterday (since I was still giggling about my constant negotiations with myself about continuing to run...I really do have those conversations with myself...)

But I also wanted to post this weekend about the bike ride I did on Friday, I FINALLY got out the really cool Avenir gel cycling gloves I WON from Nikemom about a month ago and went for a 10 mile bike ride around Mission Bay and Fiesta Island.

Aren't they pretty? They were really comfy and worked great! LOVE 'EM. Thanks again NikeMom!!!

So...maybe the bike helmet look isn't too bad after all...

Now I know that for many of you a 10 mile bike ride is a SPRINT, but you should also know that this is what I ride on.

And the tires look like this...

Really? These are not tires intended for long-distance bike travel, are they?

Before I went on the ride, I went by my local bike shop because DramaGirl's bike needed a new derailleur (or something like that), and I love this bike shop because its really close to my house, and the peeps who work there don't look at me like I'm an idiot when I ask what are probably really stupid questions about biking...because seriously, I know NADA.

But this is what I do know...riding this bike is HARD WORK. Maybe harder than it needs to be.

So, here's my thinking. I can put some better or at least more appropriate tires on my bike for less than $100 (tires, tubes, installation). Sounds reasonable to me.

Also, I can put on the groovy pedals which attach themselves to cycling shoes (which scare me a little because I'll inevitably fall off my bike at some point), but which I also believe will give me a better overall workout...shoes and pedals will cost somewhere around $100 as well (more or less).

Soooooo...my big question is, do I spend about $200 retrofitting my existing bike (when I told the bike guy that I thought I'd had the bike about five years, he did shake his head a little when he told me the bike was a 1999 or 2000 model...geez how time flies) so that I can use it for some cross training and a potential ride around Lake Tahoe this summer or do I?????

Well...there is no "other" other than do nothing...It's not like I can afford a new bike right now BTW...so really, it's a non-question. It's retrofit or nothing.

I vote for new tires and pedals.

Also, the bike-guy told me that with new tires, I'd see an immidiate 20% increase in speed, and with the new pedal/shoe combo, I'd get a better whole leg workout. (Really? 20%? My average speed on Friday's ride was 10.5 mph...does that mean I'll average about 12mph now...wheeeeeeee!)

Disclaimer: in all fairness...it was pretty windy on Fiesta Island, which undoubtedly slowed me down...but in the interest of full disclosure, lots of biking peeps FLEW past me with their fancy pedals and smooth tires...GAH!

So...why the focus on the bike? It's something that I've been thinking about for awhile. A heap of running injuries will do that to a person. I figure with a good bike ride once or twice a week, I can get some cardio in without running in a lower impact way.

Oh, and it opens a whole new door of gear that I can buy and obsess about buying...new biking sorts, new shirts, new gear...wheeeeeeeee! I like gear. We know that.

Here's me doing an RBR...biking and self-photoing at the same time without falling off the bike...I'm gonna be soooooo good at this :-)

Betty Gets a New Ride

I swear...the local Trek store owes me a HUGE commission! Since getting my bike more than two years ago, Mik, Elsie, and now Betty have gotten new bikes...and now they all have better bikes than I do.

Not that I have bike envy or anything like that...

But I do...

So...since I'd watched both Elsie and Betty get new bikes in the last month or so, I couldn't help but get a LITTLE something new for myself, and I bought new pedals and new bike shoes.

An aside...I do have some concerns about the new road pedals. I'd been using some Shimano mountain bike clip-ins since I started riding with clip in mountain bike pedals and shoes a couple of years ago, and even though I've been on a road bike for a couple of years, I kept using the clover-leaf shaped clip ins.  Let's face it. They are easier to clip into and the shoes are WAY easier to walk in than road bike pedals/shoes.

However, when Betty bought her bike, the sales guy was having NONE of that, told her that she needed some REAL road bike shoes, and sold her some real road-bike pedals, and because I have an ego the size of Montana, I decided I had to also have some REAL ROAD-BIKE CLIP-INS AND SHOES, so now I have some Shimano Road bike pedals. They're quite different. I'm expecting a fall at some point.

On the other hand, I having ridden in them one day... I get it.

For my running friends, I know you have no effing idea what I'm talking about right now. Lets just say that I decided to move from a stability shoe to a neutral shoe. It's gonna be different.

Anyway...Betty got a new bike over the weekend, and picked it up today, and despite the absolutely beautiful weather this weekend, Mother Nature decided to get all cloudy and overcast and rainy today, but we decided to go for a ride anyway.

Let's just say, it's a Trek Madone 4.3...all carbon...I hate her and have some really serious Bike Envy now.

So, we decided to go to a familiar spot to take a ride, and Lake BP was a familiar and car-less path.

We didn't ride fast or far, but we all broke in our new rides with no falls or serious adventures to speak of (e.g. no flats)

We survived!!!!

Yes...she got a new bike, now about those socks... (Shakes head and rolls eyes)

In which Betty makes friends, Mik's bike takes a bath, and I go fast

After a weekend in Vegas, and various other "responsibilities" (such as that pesky school starting thing), I got back into the regular swing of all things active this weekend, namely running and cycling. How awesome to run and ride pain free (well relatively pain free...I still get arm pain from riding, but I think that's because I need to either relax or get used to it).

On Saturday, Mik, Betty, Elsie and I met for a short run (about 5 to 6 miles each...more for speedy Mik), followed by pancakes and mimosas at Dr. Elsie's newly gardened abode. Lots of laughs and reliving events of the previous weekend.

BTW...I did forget to the whole Vegas episode when Betty couldn't quite recall what room she was in and sent Madge and Clarence to the wrong room (three times)...no really....she insisted...I'm in room 718 (it was 818). The guest in room 718 insisted she really. wasn't. Betty. and she really. wasn't. hiding. her....

And this morning (Sunday) Mik, Betty, and I meet for what we call the five cities tour. We started at San Diego Harbor, headed south through National City, then Chula Vista, Imperial Beach, back up through the Silver Strand and ended in Coronado. Then we took the ferry, back to San Diego... It was about 25 miles...again, on a beautiful, somewhat cool, somewhat foggy, morning. If you want to see a map of "The Tour" click here.

And from this morning, I do have stories.

Story 1 - Betty Makes a Friend

Before we even left the harbor Betty and Mike, who both have hearts of gold, decided to befriend a homeless guy...or he decided to befriend them. You decide.

I was busy getting my gear together, so I didn't take any pictures, but so that you have a visual, you should know that Mik and Betty's new friend looked something like this...

And thier conversation went something like this.

Homeless dude (HD): Good morning ladies!

Betty & Mik: Good morning!

Small talk about how great it is to live in San Diego ensues and as I'm putting on my bike shoes I could hear..

Betty: Yep, its a great morning! Does it get any better than this?

HD: Well... yes it does. I can show you....

Silence...

Then I hear...

Betty: Sooooooo...how do you think the weather will be today?

Apparently, HD showed Betty and Mik his tattoo, which included something that they later described looked like this...

and...since this is a PG blog, suffice it to say that the tattoo included another item...something else that looked like what we call Lake Boy Part...this...

But that's not all...then I heard

HD: So...do you want to see my muscle?

Of course by now, I'm getting my gear together REALLY SLOWLY because I'm completely entertained by the conversation...and after all, I needed to apply sunscreen...I mean a girl can burn, even when there's no sun out.

Anyway, HD showed the girls what Mik later described to me as his Popeye muscle, which poked up...just like Popeye.

Betty honked her bike horn at him as we rode off.

We did rename homeless dude as Porno Popeye...

Story 2 - Betty makes another friend...this one with tools and knee pads

I swear, Betty needs a new seat (bike seat...settle down) cuz hers swivels, and then wouldn't stay up (I said, settle down!).

We'd ridden about 15 miles and were headed up the Silver Strand when we decided to stop and stretch a bit. As we stopped, Betty spotted a guy who was either loading or unloading his bike into the back of his car, so she asked..."do you have any tools?"

He did. Bike riders are the BEST PEOPLE!

But we're not quite sure why he was wearing knee pads...

However, he did fix her seat so that it stayed up.

Gotta love a man with the right tools and the willingness to share them!

Story 3 - Sometimes it IS about the bike

The ride into Coronado was relatively uneventful except that we tried to go really fast (for us) up the strand. Miles 16-19 are really flat and we averaged about 17.5 mph for those four miles. About then, I wanted to see how fast a speed I could maintain on the new bike, so I geared down and just pedaled as fast as I could. To be honest, I don't think I was going as fast as I could, but I hadn't yet really tried to push myself on a straightaway. It was fun.

Although, I will say that if I'm the one setting the pace, it really is about the bike...

Story 4 - The kickstand

Our ride ended in Coronado (where as far as I could tell, there is NO good, divey place for breakfast! If anyone knows of one, please inform!) As we were waiting for the ferry, we did find a reasonable cup of coffee and some pastries from Il Fornaio. Betty also taught us a new trick so that I can prop my bike up when I'm not on it, and when a curb is handy. You all probably already know this one, but it looks like this...

Cool...huh?

We also learned what happens if you don't have the pedal positioned so that it is behind the front derailleur.

Mik's bike...parked correctly...

This is what happens when you park it wrong...wouldn't you just know it that we'd be in front of a fountain.

Mik - picking up her bike

Peeing handlebars

Luckily, the bike was OK...and nothing of value was in the bike-bag....and Mik is a really good sport and let me take photos (which the tourists who were sitting around, enjoying their morning coffee found quite entertaining!)

On the ferry, going home, we ran into, of all people, Coach Paul from the San Diego Track Club! He belongs to an informal riding group called the "Dead Runners." They had awesome bike shirts and I wish I'd taken photos. Basically the Dead Runners are all former college and professional runners who can't or don't run much any more (Paul was an olympic qualifier in the 1500 meters in 1992) due to the simple wear and tear that running takes on the body. We had a great conversation about our running, our biking. Why it's good to do both.

On the ferry on the way back to San Diego

So...here are some running and riding stats from the weekend.

Saturday - Run

5.44 miles

1:01:13 - time

11:14 - ave pace

Sunday - Ride

23.46 - miles

1:37:24 - time

14.5 - ave speed

It feels so good to be well!

100% Chicks

Today's Route...I have no names...Fetus with a balloon perhaps?

Betty, Clarence, and I did another two hour bike-ride this morning. Elsie stood us up as she was on DAY 2 of her Friday date with the PB... We harrassed her via text-message for awhile this morning about giving up the bike ride for, well, another ride... (She is so NEVER letting the PB read the blog now. I already know that). Somehow Mik didn't find out in time that we were going riding this morning...next time, we'll have a better plan ahead of time.

This morning, we started at DeAnza Cove, then we took the Rose Canyon Trail to La Jolla Colony, then (by mistake) to UCSD, then back to do the Fiesta Island (the Fetus) loop, and back. The May/June morning marine layer is holding strong, so it was cool, and misty for the whole ride.

I won't keep you in suspense over the stats..

24.01 miles
2:00:56 hours
11.9 mph - average speed*

Some things I learned along the way...

• I thought I'd run just about EVERYWHERE in San Diego County (I mean, I know I haven't, but sometimes I feel like I have), but I'd never been on the Rose Canyon Trail. It was a great bike trail. I do enjoy a bike trail with no cars.
• I've also never really ridden around La Jolla.
• La Jolla has hills.**
  
• It is REALLY SUPER IMPORTANT to make sure that the front break is properly connected. I rode the first two miles this morning with the front break no connected correctly, so it was rubbing the whole time. I couldn't figure out why I was pedaling so hard, and moving so slow.
• There are men who WILL stop to help you figure out what's wrong with your bike.
• If I don't do anything stupid, I won't fall.
• At 12 mph, it takes three attempts to figure out where to aim the camera in order to take an over-the-shoulder that includes what I am actually trying to photograph.
  

First try - nope

Second shot - no Clarence

Third shot - There she is!

• I'm getting pretty good at taking pictures and riding (and not falling) at the same time.
  

Betty - who can't believe I'm taking pix and not falling (she has so little faith in me)

Clarence, on her pretty, new, road bike. I am having an extreme case of bike-envy right now.

Self-portrait w/Clarence

Over the shoulder shot of Betty, who talked shop for about a mile with a school colleage we almost ran into on Fiesta Island.

100% Chicks at the end of the ride...

See...the bike says so....so it must be...

Some questions I have include...

• 24 miles on the twat is far...how does one built up muscle and endurance down there?
• Does anyone make windshield wipers for sunglasses? La Jolla marine layer = misty rain.

No mimosas today, we all had places to go...

Most people who are unfamiliar with San Diego may think it's all beaches and sand, but really, it's mostly built on and around canyons, hills, and swamps. On local running message boards, there are always messages posted by newcomers who are looking for a flat place to run (hahahahaha). Truth is, unless you area running at the beach, it doesn't exist around here. If you live in San Diego County, be prepared to run (or bike) up hills, into canyons, and around swamps.

One such swamp is actually the San Diego River (betcha you didn't even know there was a San Diego River). Way back in the day, before I ever lived here, Mission Valley had a river that ran through it. Over the years, developers and city planners have built two major regional shopping malls (seriously, two of them, within about two miles of each other), loads of condos, hotels, car dealerships, and a professional football stadium. They bicected it with a major Interstate that runs east and west, and several other major freeways that run north and south all of which cross the valley via these enoumous bridges.

To make a long story short, the river ended up with the short end of the deal.

Today, Walter asked DramaGirl, Turbo and me to go to a San Diego River Park Foundation event. The Foundation is something Walter is involved in. They do restoration projects around the San Diego River trying to restore the habitat (as best they can) to it's more natural state, where they can and generally to just care about the river. Anyway, today they had a ceremony to announce the donation of about 17 acres of land where they are going to build a new park that will include a visitor, discovery, learning center kind of place. Amazingly enough, it'll be the only park in Mission Valley.

Right now, it's just an open area on the corner of two relatively busy roads, but San Diego is sort of like that. As I stood listening to the (thankfully short) speeches and thank yous and acknowledgements, I thought about how cool it was that DramaGirl and Turbo were there. How this will be one of the things that when they grow up, and when they have kids, they can look at the park and tell their kids that they were there when it first started...nice

Walter helped to serve organic, non-dairy, ice cream (interesting...but not likely to replace the real stuff in our house.)

DramaGirl, giving her thumbs up to the event

Turbo, being, well....Turbo

Have a great week everyone. I am woefully behind on my blog commenting. Actually, I'm pretty caught up on the reading part (go ahead, quiz me, I really do know what's going on). It looks to be another really nutty week. One week of classes, then finals, then I'm done...WOOT!!!!
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* includes the brake engaged miles...which were really, really, slow....but completely hard work...GAH!
** OK Missy...you win! I can completely see how hills can make the nice guy a bad boy!

Mik's New Ride

I last rode my bike in August*. After that I became pretty focused on getting myself (and Walter) ready for Long Beach, so I put the bike away.

Luckily, Mik bought a new road bike last week, which only means that she's gonna kick my ass even more than she used to on her hybrid bike, but I'm a glutton for punishment, so we took the bikes out for an easy ride this morning. We were hoping that Clarence was going to be able to join us for her first post-childbirth-ride, but it turned out that she had too many other family plans and she is still at the place in her life where Abby's feedings and naps rule the schedule.

I mean, seriously, wouldn't you skip a ride for this? ADORABLE!!!

Ah yes...I remember those days all too well, the ones where my entire life was dictated by naps and feedings...but on further reflection, I realize that my life is still somewhat ruled by my kids' schedules, only now it's all about driving them to where ever they need/want to be.

We wanted an easy ride since Mik is still getting used to road-bike position and I haven't been on a bike since August, so we decided to go to Tideland's Park in Coronado and ride up and down the strand.**

Funny side note, when we got to Tidelands, the track club was there too. I swear, I AM NOT stalking them. I got to say hello to Anne, who was manning the aid station. Anne is a rockstar for all the volunteering work she does both at races and for weekend runs. I'm definitely looking forward to running regularly with my SDTC friends come January.

There's not really much to say about the ride itself. Mik got to play around with the Shimano gear shifting and discovered that her handlebars probably need some adjustments (she seems like she's leaning too far forward to break, and is putting too much pressure on her hands). We kept up a pretty good pace, and as usual, I can keep up with Mik for awhile, but by the end of the ride, she just pulled away from me.

Mik and her new ride...SUHWEEEET!

Some other road highlights and observations...

• The bike/runners path on the Silver Strand is two-typical bike lanes, meaning it is not particularly wide, but not so narrow either. There is plenty of room for both runners and riders, but all do need to be considerate and cautious and look for one another. For the most part, everyone abides by the written (and unwritten) rules of the road.
• We watched a runner almost get taken out by another cyclist because she (the runner) decided to do a u-turn and ran right in front of a cyclist who was about to overtake her, but who wasn't expecting her to flip a U right in front of him. Isn't the rule to ALWAYS make sure that you have clearance before you move into another lane? I never even start walking on a path unless I know for sure that nobody behind me is going to run up my ass...To me that's being both considerate AND safe. GAH!
• The foot of San Diego Bay was REALLY SMELLY this morning. I mean it's always sort of smelly where, as Elsie in biology-teacher-mode would explain, "the some-multi-syllabic-bacteria are doing-something-very-scientific-sounding causing rot and decay." In other words, It's a circle of life kind of thing...and this morning it was a MORE SMELLY THAN USUAL circle of life kind of thing.
• Large sweaty men should NEVER wear white bike shorts...especially when wearing a cycling jersey with some kind of spiraling pattern on the back that appears to be pointing straight down...'nuff said. My comment to Mik was "that guy is clearly single because no wife would let her husband out of the house in that."
• Props to the cyclist who was out there this morning, tearing it up, who had one leg! Awesome!
• Do you ever ride/run along and check out all the swag that others are wearing that you also own? This morning, I saw peeps in SDTC t-shirts, SDRnR shirt, and one wearing a Long Beach 1/2 Swag Bag. 
• It was a truly beautiful morning for riding. After our batshit crazy weather here this week (high 90s on Wednesday, 100º on Thursday, it cooled off to about 80º yesterday), it was clear, and humid this morning. A clear sign that the winds have changed back to the offshore kind from the nasty Santa Ana winds that ruled this week. I did think it was about that time of year where I make everyone feel bad for me, having to live in this place, by posting some photos of the bay this morning. Sadly, I was trying to catch up with Mik, so I didn't stop to take any photos other than this one, which I took when we decided to turn around at 10 miles and head back.

Mik and I at the foot of San Diego Bay...just past the really smelly part, which is probably why we are smiling!

Hopefully, I saved some legs for tomorrow morning when Mik, Walter, Kat, and I are running in the Shelter Island 5K...the best 5K (IMHO) in San Diego County. Flat, fast, and ends with a full champagne buffet breakfast. We're going to see how fast Walter can run 3 miles so that he gets us a table! I'll get to see Irene & her husband, and hopefully Glenn there! Yay!

Hope you're having a fabulous weekend, and good luck to all the racers out there including Meg and BS who are in NYC this weekend and who, from her latest report, appear to be staying in a reasonable place this time, and not in a crack-shack (and I'm not talking about the kind of crack that I saw this morning from the dude in the white cycling shorts...I'm scared by this, I swear)...Anyway, good luck Meg!
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* On the off chance that you actually look back at my August post, please not that it is AUGUST and we are all bundled up as if it is a winter day (the blue faces are a camera trick and NOT as a result of the cold, but it was COOL that AUGUST morning), whereas today it is NOVEMBER, and I wished I had worn my cycling tank-top because it was a wee-bit-warm!


** We really did try to get others to ride with us this morning, and run with us tomorrow, but Betty and Alberta are in Cancun (pity, huh?) for a friend's wedding and Elsie is with The Statue since she's going to some conference in Washington DC this week.

January Recap & a race report of sorts

I've never really tracked my monthly mileage before, but the Garmin makes it pretty darn easy (sorta)...I gotta figure out how to track my treadmill mileage more accurately.

Here are my stats:
Run (outdoors) - 56:45
Run (treadmill) - 5.25

The treadmill run mileage is an estimate...I have one Nike+ workout recorded which sorta corresponds to one of runs saved in the treadmill memory, plus there is one more short run afterward...so I'll go with those numbers. Come to think of it, I don't remember running much on the treadmill this month and my quick review of the Hefferblog supports that claim in that there's not much of me complaining about running with Dread. Sooooo

January Run - 61.70
January Bike - 11:31

Yep...those rockin' bike miles all came from today because while Mik, Alberta, and BBJ ran the SuperRun 10K, and while Betty and Elsie ran on the bay, I rode around the bay on my bike.

I don't have any fancy sort of touring bike. I have a pretty standard Trek street/trail bike. It's a nice bike and all...but it's not meant for speed.

This is what I learned about me and biking today (and I have TONS to learn about biking)

• Biking was gentle on the hips. They didn't hurt at all during or after the ride.
• Biking is hell on my ass.
  
• There is a whole different set of muscles involved in biking. I haven't recently used some of them. I suspect I'll know more about that in the morning.
  
• I don't sweat as much when I bike as I do when I run.
  
• My toes FROZE...what do you bikers do to get your toes to be warm? Do I just have my feet on the pedals wrong?
• It felt great to get my heart rate up and just MOVE...sitting around and "resting" for a week was starting to wear on me.

We got a REALLY early start this morning. The track club was meeting at 6:30...an hour before the 7:30 am SuperRun started. Betty wanted to get there even earlier because she needed to talk to Coach Paul before the race, so I picked her up at 5:45 and we were at the start of the race at East Mission Bay as the race volunteers were setting up.

It was dark.

Betty...searching in the dark for Coach Paul...Even he wasn't there THAT early...the good news is that we were the first ones to use the porta-potties! A real thrill!

Betty explained to me that If I held the camera above our heads, we would stop having double chins in our self-portraits...who knew? I learn so much from that woman...I swear!

Mik and Kat showed up as the sun rose.

Since Elise wasn't running the race, Betty and I drove over to the west side of Mission Bay so they could run together and I would ride my bike. I decided to run around the entire bay...about 12 miles...I knew that if I rode around the bay, there was a chance that I could see some of my track club friends as they came off of Fiesta Island...

Here let me post a map so this all makes sense.

I'm not sure why it looks like I was riding in the middle of the bay, but it sorta gives you an idea of where I was...

I stopped riding at Fiesta Island (which doesn't show up on the map, but it's about where the I-5 symbol is) for a couple minutes to see if I could find any of the herd...I had really good timing.

BBJ finished in 50:32...AWESOME.

Mik and Kat screamed past me.

I don't think Mik ever saw me, and Kat only saw me at the last minute...They also had great races (Mik = 55:46 and Kat = 55:16)

I didn't get a picture of Alberta, but she came in at 59:51 (official). She said her Garmin time was around 57 minutes. I'm so proud of her (and a little jealous...).

After I saw my friends, I continued on my ride and took some photos of the bay and the new walkway that's on the Seaworld side of Mission Bay. It was quite lovely.


After our runs and rides, we all met up at World Famous for breakfast (and mimosas). For some reason I didn't take a picture of the group (I mean how many shots of us eating breakfast and drinking mimosas can I really post?).

I hear there's a football game tomorrow... Hope whoever your rooting for wins!

It Takes Two People to Hold the Shaft...

Things I learned while changing yet ANOTHER EFFING TIRE today.

1. You can successfully remove a tire tube, and replace it, and have it almost fully blown up, and still fail at changing a tire.
2. This can happen twice.
3. It takes two people to change a tire. One person to hold the shaft (at the base works best) and one person to carefully pump, making sure that the head doesn't fall off.
4. Two people can fail at doing this...TWICE.
5. Patches can work, but only for so long.
6. If you're going to have to wait for a friend to pick you up, you may as well be here...

So...the day started off quite well. Clarence, Mik, and I met at Betty's at 6:45, loaded bikes and gear and headed toward Pacific Beach. Our goal was to start at the Rose Creek Canyon trail, ride up into UCSD, then head toward Torrey Pines State Beach, onto Del Mar, Solana Beach and back. We'd hoped to get in about 30 miles and some hill work since Betty and Mik are going to bike around Tahoe this summer.*

Betty and Mik got there first - Clarence and I wondered why Betty was dressed as a homeless person.

We stopped to stretch when we got to UCSD - about 5 miles into the ride and after going up one hill.

The roads on the UCSD campus, especially on the back side are a mess. They're pretty torn up, patched, and filled with divots. After the tire-changing episode two weekends ago, I've been pretty careful riding my bike on bad roads, but 2ithin two miles of our stretch stop, I hit a divot in the street pretty hard, and just like the last time I could feel the back tire, and then I could hear the air...hsssssssssssss.

Clarence was behind me (again...thanks so much). So we stopped, swore, and got to changing the tire.

This time, I had all the tools and two (not one...but TWO...spare tubes).

Back tire, off. Yellow tube-removing tool-thingies - check

The dude at the bike store suggested that I store the tubes in a plastic bag in talc, so I've got baby powder effing EVERYWHERE now.

We had some troubles pumping the tire at first, but that's probably because I don't really understand how these newfangled tire-valve thingy's work. But we start pumping...

Then the valve breaks..

It's a really blurry picture...but there's a broken valve here...

Clarence and I swear a few more times, then decided to use the SECOND TUBE and to be careful this time.

So I remove the broken-valve tube (in record time, I might add)...and by this time, Betty and Mik return to the scene to help with the pumping...because they're really good at that...and by now my hand was tired.

Mik helps out by holding the base of the shaft and Betty pumps...

Sometimes it helps to change position...

Mik said this position was really uncomfortable

So as we almost have the second tire pumped up...what happens?

If you are a non-biker, this means nothing to you, but bikers might recognize this as a bike valve without the little screw-on/off top thingy...which means that any air pumped in comes right the EFF out after the pump is removed...WTF?

So, undaunted by two broken valves, we opt to patch the blown out tube.

I use this (which I don't recommend BTW)

VERY CAREFULLY... We pumped the tire full of air. Managed to do this without breaking off a third valve, and SUCCESS!

Hooray for us.

At this point, we'd been riding about 7 and a half miles (that's all), so we decided to rid up onto Torrey Pines to see how the tire holds. And it seems to for about another 2 miles or so.

Then as we descend down toward the state beach, I start to really feel the road. About 3/4 of the way down the hill, I look down. Tire. is. totally. flat. GAH!

One flat tire

I love Clarence for many reasons. She is a great friend, but this morning, I loved her because she then tried to put enough air in my tire to get me the rest of the way down the hill to the state beach (which is where we were meeting Betty and Mik) and when that didn't work, she walked her bike down the hill with with me (about 1/4 mile), and reminded me to walk with my bike toward the road and to not get hit by one of the cars racing up PCH at about 65 mph.

Mik and Betty - Getting ready for the ride back UP Torrey Pines

Clarence...giving Betty and Mik plenty of encouragement

Finally...got to pee

Elsie to the rescue - she came to pick up Clarence and I - I guess it's a good thing she DIDN'T ride with us this morning.

So...Clarence and I got a lift from Elsie, and met Betty and Mik at the high dive for some breakfast (by then lunch)

Guinness and Pancakes... (That was for you Al)

Mik does a celebration drink from the champagne bottle...reward for riding back up North Torrey Pines.

Clarence and the bikes on the ride home - yes, I need a bike rack

So...lessons learned.

1. I need a bike rack
2. I now know how to change a tire
3. WTF is up with the tire valves that I was using? Am I an idiot and don't know how to pump up a tire? or was it faulty valves?
4. WTF is up with me and the flat tires? I'm thinking it's time to get a real road bike. Maybe the road tires on a mountain bike is just not such a good idea... some how the weight or the ratios of weight to tire load capacity is off.
5. Or maybe I just have really bad luck (I also broke my camera today...completely random...can't figure out how. We just looked at it and the lens was stuck and it's broken now).

GAH!

My stats for the weekend

Friday - Ride 12 miles

Saturday - Run 4.5 miles

Sunday - Ride 9.7 miles

*I'll write later about why I'm not going, but I'm expecting guest blogs about their adventures from both of them.