more guts than ability
woke up pretty late this morning, 930. spent a bunch of time putting together that blog entry about americans and their ridiculous debt problem and then had a long coffee chat with the woman who we rent from as she just got back from a two week trip to the phillipines and the UK. put new cleats on my shoes and then went for a ride. what does that equal? rain. yeah, it didn't rain all damned day but as soon as i got on the road the south winds kicked up and it was low 40's and wet. really wet. i was even struggling just to ride down hill it was so damned windy.
the plan called for me to ride 3.5 hrs today but i wanted to warm up from the rest week so i only put in 2 hours at a moderate endurance pace. my heart rate monitor wasn't cooperating, so it says i was at my AT the whole time. blah! it was pretty damned bad, but i was holding out ok. my feet were frozen and my hands were just past the burning cold and were getting on towards numb. pretty standard. anyway, i was perfectly happy because there wasn't anybody out driving on the lake, so it was just me and the crows, which isn't bad. no traffic is a huge plus. but then, just ahead of leschi, i saw some poor kid shivering next to his bike in the wind and rain with no rain jacket, fingerless gloves with wool liners underneath and no booties. i asked if he needed some help and he declined saying that he'd take the bus. i insisted and we fixed his double flat. seems that he doesn't have a floor pump so he figured he pinch flatted on the potholes (which after 6 or so years i seem to instinctively avoid) that plague that stretch of road. we got on to a shop about half a mile down and he was able to top them off with a floor pump. we were both riding back the same way, so i invited him to ride along with me. but then he flatted again. a loud blast of a flat. yeah, well i was out of tubes. can't help you there buddy and i'm damned cold. i busted it the 20 minutes home with my hands much much colder now since i'd had to take the gloves off for the flat fix. nothing like putting cold wet gloves back on.
felt sorry for that kid. i remember those days of racing in college. no money for equipment and just learning the ropes of how to care for a bike. more guts and determination than knowledge and ability. its a tough place to be. hope he made it home ok. made me want to clean out my garage and give him all my old clothing and equipment. who knows, maybe he'll track me down, cause if he does, i have some stuff for him.
