Of course I should have known better than to head out late in the afternoon on a chilly (OK, almost cold!) fall day. I really wanted to get a ride in though and I knew the route Dave and I usually ride (the Lon Hagler Rez ride) takes me just over an hour if I stay focused. That wasn’t a problem — I wanted to ride and I knew if I had to, I could ride hard to get back before it got too dark to be safe on the streets.<\/p>\n
What I forgot to factor in was the flat tire that I got just after I passed the turn-around point and was heading back towards the farm. What made it worse is that when I got out my new, handy-dandy, compressed gas contraption, the cylinder was already punctured so there was no compressed gas to be had. And, with no backup hand pump….there I was, about 8 miles from home, with Look-cleated shoes (which we all know are good for walking about 20 paces to the porta-potty on a fully supported event and that’s about it!) and the sun quickly dropping behind the foothills. I was thankful that my cell phone had 1) a charged battery and 2) coverage in this remote area of the front range so that I could call for a rescue! Beth must’ve been outside with the horses because no one answered my call for help. After a few attempts to reach her, I went\u00a0 to my Plan B\u00a0which is to call my ever-reliable Dad. He and my mom only live a few miles from the farm and he was happy to come\u00a0rescue\u00a0Scooter and me. In the 20 minutes between my flat and my rescue it had gotten quite a bit colder and dusk was quickly approaching.\u00a0 Lesson learned. On my training rides, I think I’ll put my hand pump back in my jersey pocket until I can get this new-fangled compressed air solution figured out!<\/p>\n
The inability to walk far (or comfortably) also solidified my decision to wear recessed SPD cleats when I do the cross country tour. Not sure how far in advance I need to make the switch. Actually, I’ve always worn recessed SPD cleats on my tours so making the transition back to them should be painless. I will miss the light, efficient “racing” shoes I’ve been wearing, but I’d rather be able to walk than race as I go across the country.<\/p>\n
I should note that the ride itself was GREAT – fast paced and with rhythm. While I was riding, I didn’t feel cold — I only got chilled while waiting for my Dad to arrive. If I hadn’t gotten the flat, I’m sure I would have made it home with time to spare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Of course I should have known better than to head out late in the afternoon on a chilly (OK, almost cold!) fall day. I really wanted to get a ride in though and I knew the route Dave and I usually ride (the Lon Hagler Rez ride) takes me just over an hour if I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-training_rides"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starfirefarm.com\/ride\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starfirefarm.com\/ride\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starfirefarm.com\/ride\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starfirefarm.com\/ride\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starfirefarm.com\/ride\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.starfirefarm.com\/ride\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135,"href":"https:\/\/www.starfirefarm.com\/ride\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions\/135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starfirefarm.com\/ride\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starfirefarm.com\/ride\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starfirefarm.com\/ride\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}