Bad Bike Karma Cometh

You could say I had it coming. It was inevitable. Good or bad. Bike karma catches up with us eventually. This time it was my turn for a taste of some bad. It all started with a little event that happened on Thursday.

This morning started off well. The plan was a 2000 yard straight swim, followed by a 40 mile bike ride. 2000 yard swim was excellent and in record time. Then I tried to pick up some good karma by stopping at mile 1 of TT's 10k race to see her off (she did great btw). Once I cheered her on, I headed out on the bike trail toward Mt Vernon to continue my workout.

Cruising along the Potomac, things were going fine. I recently got the Profile Design Aero Drink system, but the store was out of the Aero Bracket, so I had to make do with the cheapo rubber bands to hold my fluids. A bump here and bump there, no biggie. But then about 6 miles in, I hit one that popped the splash guard out, so I had to stop and get it. Then as I was going over a small bridge that is narrow 2-way traffic on the sidewalk of the bridge and encountered an issue. There were 2 guys running 2 wide ahead on the bridge, which they shouldn't have been doing in the first place. As I approached them, I yelled "On your left!". Dude all the way to the left, pulled ahead of his buddy to make room for me. Apparently, buddy didn't understand. As I'm literally passing right next to them, buddy pulls out 2 wide again, knocking me into the rock wall of the bridge. WTF! Did he not get the memo? No apology, nothing. Just a jackass. No more than a mile later, splash guard decided to jump out of its holder again. Fine. I'll just have to be careful for now to look out for big bumps and brace for it. THEN, the left arm rest of my aero bars popped off. I stopped to go get it and screwed it back on, but it looks like something snapped and I need to get a replacement part. So for now, its riding the drop bars. "Anything else feel like happening today?", I said to myself. Another mile later, POP....flat tire. My rear tire, no less. Ugh. Worst. Ride. Ever.

I peeled of the trail and started changing the tire. There were lots of nice people making sure I was ok, asking me if I needed a tube or a hand. This was actually my first time having to change a flat in the middle of a ride on a road bike. I've fixed plenty of flats on my mountain bike, which I think is much easier, and a handful of times on my road bike, just not on the ride. I once flatted 200 yards from home, so I just walked the bike home and took care of it later. After about 10 minutes, I fixed the flat, but wasn't feeling the long ride, especially with all the bad vibes coming my way before I even turned around. I decided to head on back and come home.

With a tri in exactly 1 week, let's hope the bad bike karma wrath is over and its time for some
good stuff to start happening.