Wednesday, August 25, 2010
We were riding through Gates Mills when John let loose with an expletive and yelled that he had a flat.
“I never get flats,” he said, pulling to the side of the road and examining his rear tire…which was definitely flat.
“Well…you’ve got one now. Got a spare tube?” He was looking through his saddle bag behind his seat and coming up empty. I looked through mine and found that I did. I mean I should…I can get flats at rapid rates and should always be carrying. I’m also like the dad in ‘A Christmas Story’ when it comes to changing them…dreams of Lance’s pit crew in the Tour de France…let’s see how fast I can go.
We had the wheel off quickly and I sat in the grass on the side of the road…which is against the law in Gates Mills, but I was living dangerously for now…and began pulling off the old tube and inserting the new. We had it done quickly and reinflated to about 90 pounds – the best I could do with the hand pump – in short order. I gave it to John to put back together. No sense in my getting greasy.
“Um…which way do you turn this thing?” John asked, trying to reinstall his repaired tire.
“Lefty loosey, righty tighty,” I replied.
“Is that true here?” John asked. I think he was confusing north and south of the equator…you know how water in your toilet swirls clockwise here, but counter clockwise in the southern hemisphere.
“We’re only in Gates Mills. All the rules of physics that apply in Twinsburg still work here,” I said as he finally figured out which way to turn the nut holding his wheel in place.
We finished the ride without incident and it was rather refreshing to not be the person getting a flat. John was interested to see where he was on the condition scale and asked that we climb Rogers Road, which we did. He was disappointed with the way he felt when we reached the top knowing that he had a ways to go before he would be ready for our trip to the Adirondacks.
“Why is it that I finally get myself going with riding when the days are getting too short to ride?” he asked, rhetorically. Like so many, he tended to put off fitness and training…letting life get in the way. He knew the issue here though…either he got it over the next four weeks or he’d pay the price when he needed it in the mountains. They wouldn’t care about his excuses. They’d make him pay.
We rode for a little over an hour and forty minutes and returned to my place to review my climbing plans for our trip in September and to once more cover my shortcomings as a writer.
“They’re two different words. ‘Effect’ is a noun and ‘affect’ is a verb. They’re not interchangeable and you’re always using them the wrong way,” he admonished.
“Um…right. Verb and noun. Got it. Um…what’s a verb and a noun?”
I’m the training partner…gotta love me.
Bike duration: One hour and 40 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 120.
Calories burned during workout: 1,500.
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