Following Good Advice Pays Off

This strained(?) calf muscle is obnoxious, but I am thankful for the wisdom of learning to love and push myself with cycling.  I don't know much about cycling, but I do know it is excellent cross-training and tends to work the quads in a different way than running... which is good, because it was those good-for-nothing quads that betrayed me in my last marathon so I figure if I work them in as many different ways as possible, I might overcome such a problem in my next 26.2.

About a month or so back, I had posted on this blog about an experience of having a blowout a mile in to a 12 miler.  I walked the bike home and wrote about the experience.  Then a friend commented about getting a kit with a CO2 cartridge since having a blowout, a slow leak, or running over some sharp something that embeds itself into your tire are just a part of the sport.  I went out a few days later and picked up a CO2 kit and a spare tube and placed them all in my saddle-bag which hangs under my seat.

I didn't think much of it until today.  I have been going regularly 30+ miles 1 day a week and about 15+ on another day.  These are my cross training days.  I've been running longer runs twice a week and speed/tempo runs twice a week.  Then this whole calf thing happened, and while I'm not yet classifying it as an injury, it can be a precursor to one if I'm not careful.  So, while today was supposed to be a speed workout, I turned it into a 16 mile bike ride, instead (time constraints as they are).  

I went out about 8ish miles and turned around to come back.  This is when I started to notice that my front tire felt a little low and sluggish, eventually I pulled over next to a guardrail and took the little pump that is attached to my bike and pumped up the tire.  I realized that there was probably a slow leak, but that I might have enough air in the tire to get home.  In about another mile, the slow leak turned out to be a fast leak and a flat tire.  I pulled off to another guard rail and knew what needed to be done.

I thanked God for the advice of my friend, Amy, who suggested me buying this kit and that I had the wisdom to follow the advice.  I simply took off the front tire, removed the tire and tube (quickly finding a small metal wire stuck in the tire), pulled out the new tube and gave it a little shot of air with the CO2 kit, put the tire back on and shot more CO2 into the tire (it took less than a second and the tire was completely full), and I rode home.  The whole episode with the tire took less than 15 minutes off my anticipated finish time.

So, thank you Amy :-)

I really hope this calf thing heals itself soon, but I am beginning to like cycling, too... all I need is to get into some open water and start swimming and I'd be ready for a triathlon.

Thanks for reading, and God Bless!