Ride 100 for the year

Lasted 20 minutes with two flats. No sooner than I had reached the Fountain Hills city limit sign did I notice that the rear wheel felt squishy. Shit, with a new tube and all. I was loosing air slowly, so I put a cartridge in it and limped home to put in another tube. I checked the tire this time, feeling stupid for not having done that when the first swap out. There's nothing in it. Hmm... Put the new tube in and pump it up. It holds air to out I go.

This time, I'm 3 minutes away from the house. My legs are feeling great because of the 16 minute warm-up I got. American Idiot is blaring in my ears, I'm pumping an awesome rhythm, and...

Ok, so now I'm headed home pissed. I should have put some more air in it. Not doing that meant 30 minutes on the truing stand this morning, but I was pissed.

This time of the season that can really take it out of you. It borders on burnout and breakdown at the same time. I'm pretty sure this just a product of this last week's training: the hardest week of the year and will stay that way until after nationals. Couple that with not eating half as good as I should, and my system is all out of whack. It's amazing how fragile - no, that's not the right word... temperamental - the human body becomes when you start pushing it towards its limits.

The next few weeks are going to be a less intense with a focus more on steady miles. The way I'm feeling, I'm starting to think the Watermelon is out of the question. It's two trips up the Sandia mountains in Albuquerque. I know it'd be an awesome training ride, but 10 hours driving plus a hotel bill... If it's just for training I can manage that a lot closer. Plus, the non-race thing means I don't have to completely kill myself on the climb. Two weeks before two big marathons? Just seems like it could be a very bad idea.