Caffeine Addiction

Today I woke up and wanted to ride a challenging ride. Yesterday I rode 70 miles, but the climbing was resulted in total elevation 0f around 3,000 and after the 3 previous weekends not as challenging. I guess this means I am getting into a little better shape.

I had a bad headache during my ride and gave up after about 50 miles. I came home, rested and ate lunch, but nothing helped. I then had some coffee and within 15 minutes I felt fine.

The last few weeks have been about changing tires and tubes. I have changed both tires. I have been riding them since the trip last year from about Kansas so my guess is that I rode on them for about 7,000 miles.

As to the tubes, it was the end of an era. I have been riding on a specialized tube that Karen bought for me in Kansas last year and it went flat. I changed that tube and continued on to work. The next day my back tire went flat at almost exactly the same place. I changed that so at least I know I picked up 1 skill last year. During my lunch break, I went to a bike store and had them fill the tubes with air. While I was waiting I heard a loud pop. The person working at the store blew out my tube. He tried again and blew it up a second time. I suggested a floor pump and it blew up a third time. Apparently, when he blew up the tube it blew away the wire bead from the tire. He replaced the tire with a commuter friendly (perhaps a little heavier tire), but all was good. On my bike back to the office I got 2 flats and had to walk the bike back to the office as I was out of tubes. I got a ride home and that was it for biking for the rest of the week.

As the weather has been a little better this month (still more than a normal amount of rain) and more sunlight during the day has helped me bike around 1,000 miles this month, bringing my total to a little over 2,000 miles for the year.