Before The Heatwave & Rain

Today I was up at 4:00 in the morning, ready to take a couple Advil and stay up for a few minutes, drinking some water and juice before laying back down to try and get a few more hours of sleep, or at the very least another hour or two, then get up and work on my bike to get it ready for a spin. Seeing all of the cyclist heading up and down Mount Rose yesterday was making me itch to go for a spin, at the same time, based on how dead my legs were today I don't think I would have been able to make it very far up the mountain in comparison to those guys and gals.

Back Up

Around 6:40 Oggy started pawing at me and licking me in the face to get up and make him some breakfast. As annoying as it is, he has done it since he was just a little puppy so how are we supposed to get mad at him for it.

I totally understand it, he is hungry and depends on us to make his lunch and dinner. We have never forgotten, actually no, we did forget one time and it was this year. We still left him with his rotisserie that day so he still had food twice before we finally made it back home to give him dinner. He just missed his normal kibble and canned food for the morning.

We felt so bad, really bad actually because we are always telling him to 'chill out' and that we are not going to forget him, we never have after all and then what do we go and do that exact same week? We rush out of the house and somehow forget.

Anyway I decided to go ahead and stay up this time even though I could probably have easily went back to bed for another hour or so. I was still not feeling 100% and my stomach was cramping every now and again and my head was still hurling just a tad but nothing like it was when I woke up at 4:00. At that time my mouth was so dry it was crazy as well. So bad in fact that I was unable to swallow saliva without trying really hard and thinking about it, weird.

So because I was up I decided to make some coffee and have a few snacks to go along with it. I 'stole' two of Cicely's Milano cookies which go great with coffee and are light cookie with just a dab of chocolate spread between the two cookies. I also had one salted caramel biscotti.

Bike Repair Work

I had to now get out in the garage and repair the rear tire that got the big hole in it last Sunday before I was finished with my 3 hour ride that I was on. In reality this should not have taken more than 20 minutes or so to do, even if I had to pull the entire tire and put in a tube as I would have before I had the tubeless setup.

With the tubeless I needed to still pull the tire off the rim, clean out the old sealant the best that I could and then I needed to find each hole and patch it up on the inside using these expensive-ass patches that you only get 4 of in a kit, yea, 4 of them and some glue for something like $12 or $14 if I remember correctly. That is crazy expensive in my book when a new tube is about 1/2 that.

Then if you decide that you want to patch it (which I normally do not) you can use these self stick ones called 'scabs' or you can use the typical vulcanizing ones. That is very inexpensive to do, but for me I figure that I have the tire off, the tube out and I might as well just put a new one in rather than put a patch on it and hope it will last.

At the same time, you might put a new tube in and have the exact same issue. With the tubeless its nearly the same except they are a real bitch to get off and back on. Then once you have them off you need to repair the hole and fill the tire back up with air. If for some reason you are not able to get it to seal still then you need to try and put a tube into it.

To do this, from what I can tell and have read, it's not the easiest thing to do either because of the way the bead of the tire is and the thickness compared to a traditional clincher tire. I will have to do more research on this topic and get more information from the experts that I know or YouTube videos.

Anyway I finally get the tire off, all the holes and 'just in case' holes repaired and it has now been well over 1.5 hours and I was not happy, but at least it was done. So I filled up the tire first, before putting any sealant in it (thankfully) because once it was full of air I could totally see where the hole that was leaking really bad last week was at and it was open, there was no way that I was going to risk using this tire so I had to start the entire process over again with a brand new tire that I thankfully ordered a couple weeks back 'just in case.

Now I was already pushing 3 hours into this 'quick fix' and it was getting to be more annoying and I was losing my motivation quickly to go for the spin that I had been looking forward to. Finally done and looking at the clock it was 4 hours later and I could finally go on my ride.

Spin

Finally out on the road and I was weak as ever, bummer! This was in part to the slight bit of wind, not much, just enough to know that it was there pushing against me. Then the fact that I was not feeling well yesterday while we were driving up to, and hanging out at the lake. My stomach was cramping every now and again. It was also in the low 90's so hot enough to make you feel weak, thirsty and tired much sooner than you normally would.

All done, back at home and I thankfully was able to get in just over 20 or 21 miles for the day. If Zoey and I don't go for a quick ride tonight then I may not make my goal this week of 50 miles - that would suck!

Back To It

Alright, that is about all that has gone on for this part of the day. I need to get outside and mow the lawn now before it starts raining. There are supposed to be thunderstorms today but so far so good. We have been lucky enough to only have clouds and overcast. At the same time it has been much more humid out than it usually is in this area.

So with that, I better get out and get going before my eyes start to get any heavier and I fall asleep on the couch for a much needed Sunday afternoon nap. Those feel so awesome during the summer when the A/C is cranked up and you are snuggled into a warm blanket for the day.

Photo: Photo is from yesterday when we were at the lake. Cicely was nice enough to get us 2 or 3 of these 24 ounce Pabst Blue Ribbon that we shared. Hit the spot but I was not that much into a drinking mood because of my stomach and she really wasn't either so in the end we only had about 3/4 of one between the two of us.