I behaved myself

I think I should be proud of myself today. I went out for a ride with the Gearshifters as planned this morning. We were going to ride up through the Hutt then into the Haywards and up Moonshine Rd. Well, I was going to ride up Moonshine Rd if my knee felt ok.

By the time we were riding along Old Hutt Rd on our way out to Petone my knee was gently letting me know that I wasn't going to be climbing any hills today. It felt fine when I was cruising along, but started to hurt if I pushed it.

I let Dee know was was going on, then at Seaview everyone else hung a left and I rolled straight through the roundabout. Liz ended up coming with me, her knee also hurting. I suggested we ride to the end of the road at Eastbourne then turn back to Freyberg again.

Of course as soon as we were on our own, by the "Welcome to Eastbourne" sign, I got a flat. Off with the back tire, and with a bit of effort I managed to get the thing off the rim and pull out the tube. Thankfully it was easy to tell what had caused the flat - a thin little bit of something that looked like fuse wire but was considerably stronger and sharper. It left a nice hole in my new tire.

So far so good. I blew up the new tube a little and got it onto the rim. However it was almost impossible to get the tire back on again. These new tires are tight! A passing Dutch man helpfully got the tire back on, but as we were about to get the CO2 out we realised the tube was pinching. So we took the tire back off again and were struggling to get the tube to sit right.

Which is about when Nic from the Vorbette forums (and the Capitelles) rode past and rescued me. Boy did I ever feel like a total girly nube in my pink gloves and helmet struggling to change my tire! She blew the tube up a little more, got it straight, and got the tire back on again in no time. Then she changed Cleo back into the smallest gear and got the wheel back on. She also gave Liz and me a few tips on riding on the small chain ring rather than the large, and focussing more on maintaining a high cadence, particularly if we were having knee problems.

So yes, I felt like an absolute, total nube, but I was extremely grateful! Trying to salvage something out of our day, Liz and I continued on to the end of the road, then turned and headed back to Freyberg. The weather was thankfully holding up. Rain had been forecast but luckily we had only a couple of intermittent showers and there was only a slight Southerly. As we headed back down the motorway Liz's knee was giving her more and more grief. We kept the pace slow and eventually made it back to Freyberg (tooting buses and crazy drivers notwithstanding).

Afterwards I could tell that I hadn't aggravated my knee issues. It feels fine - or at least no more sore than it was before the ride. Sure, today was slow and short, but at least I was still out there. If the weather permits (the rain has finally arrived and the wind is picking up fast) I'll go out and cruise the bays again tomorrow and perhaps by Monday I might be able to get back into the hills.

In a case of brilliant timing, I bumped into my former swim tutor, Lesleigh, outside Freyberg today. She's very supportive of my half-ironman plans and told me to give her a call when I was ready. Yay!

A half-iron just feels like the right distance to be trying for somehow. At least, it's something I can feel excited about. The Rotorua running course looks gorgeous as well. Now, all I have to do is manage my knee.