Bloody feet, flat tires and sunburn

I don't do so well with idle time...and that's how the bloody feet come into play, but first, let's re-cap the last few days...

Thursday evening cleared up quite nicely for my ride. It was humid and I was tired, but all in all, good stuff.

Friday morning, I got up and went for a run first thing in the morning. I don't drink coffee every day, but this was one of those days when i needed it...so I put the coffee on to brew while I was out running. This is me pre-run and coffee...

And this is me post-run, coffee in hand...You get the picture.

Anyway, no training Friday night. YAY!!! So, I did some cleaning. Actually, I was looking for my passport. And that required some arrangement of my spare bedroom (aka the room where all my shit is packed away and thrown around - cool weather clothes, excess shoes, trainer, paper work, art work, etc). Anyway, I never found it, and called it an early night so I could get up early for training.

Saturday mornings at Caesar Creek are always an adventure. This time, I nearly died trying to get there. The rain started coming down as soon as I got on the expressway. Being that it's an hour away, I thought maybe I'd get lucky and it wouldn't be a monsoon up there. I sent coach a text. He replied with something either A) smartassed or B) ignorant. I couldn't tell which. regardless, I got the idea it wasn't raining there. But, I was wrong.

After much debate about what to do, Coach and I swam HARD in the lake for an hour while the other boys went out for a ride with the idea that we'd all reconvene in about 90 mins. 95 mins later...boys nowhere in sight and rain coming down a bit harder. Coach had lots of miles to get in, but I only had 30, so I headed out on my own. And it was kinda fun. But cold. Only 64 degrees and wet. I was glad to put on sweats and head home.

It was rainy all afternoon, so I watched a couple movies, did some painting, made some phone calls and just wished Sunday would come sooner than later. I was looking forward to the big training day!!

Sunday morning and I hit the snooze a few times. Hadn't packed any bags or food the night before and needed to leave my place by 6:30. So, I got up and somehow, I had like 15 mins to spare. This is where the idle time proves not good...right before a training session.

I decided I could cut my toenails.

But, I couldn't find my clippers. Idid, however, come across my callous remover, which is basically a shielded razor. I was very careful on my first foot, knowing my feet were dry and susceptible to having the blade dig too deep. Then came foot number two. And I guess I got a little careless. The first swing and....oops! A little too deep. I pull the razor out and immediately moved down the foot. Swipe...ouch. A little too deep again. Crap. Now, blood is dripping everywhere. I try to wrap it in tissues and found some band-aids and headed to Tom's. By the time I got there, this is how it looked.

So, we wrapped it in duct tape and made the drive down to Louisville to ride the IMKY course.

And that's when the fun began. Not 10 mins in, and i looked back...no Tom. So, I looped back and he's on the side of the road fixing a flat. Ok, at leat we were getting it done early, right??

Then we get out on the course and about an hour in and again, I looked back...no Tom. WTF? I looped back again. He's got a slow leak in his front tire, says he's gonna head back because he doesn't have another innertube. Now, I have another innertube, but he doesn't want to take that. And I also have 3 CO2 cartridges...which he will take advantage of. YES!!! I wasn't wanting to ride alone, so he used half a cartridge and we were on our way...again.

We stopped a little over three hours in for more water at a Marathon station. There were mass riders out on the course all day long. Tom got mostly water. I treated myself to a Diet Mt. Dew (for the sodium and caffeine mostly because I was sweating like a banchee).

We left there with about 35 miles to town... and that 35 miles took us 2 hours!!! Partly because of the headwind and partly because we had to stop THREE times!

That slow leak got gradually faster. Finally, I just told him to take my innertube. I had one CO2 cartridge left and we were about 20 miles out. So, I pull my innertube out to give to him...and guess what? I had another in my bag. Ha. So, we could've just changed his tired out long before and not had to stop so much, but well, ya know.

We finally made it back to the truck and were headed out for a run. I changed shorts (because i did practice my peeing on the bike) and pulled on my Zoots and he starts looking around...forgot his shoes! I was feeling weak from the heat and fighting the wind and pulling much of the time, so I headed out alone and left him to load up the bikes.

I was so glad to get back and stretch and pour water all over myself before getting a big ass sub at Jimmy John's and driving back home. ANd that's when the pain started to set into my foot. I peeled off the duct tape and band-aids, which the blood had soaked through...and found this.

And when I got home, I poured alcohol on it because the last thing I want is an infected toe and not being able to do anything...and I nearly convulsed in pain. Ha ha... I'm really not stupid, I just do stupid things sometimes.

Despite the technical difficulties of the day, I had so much fun riding with Tom and catching up and talking about like, bitching about work, laughing about irony...

And now that I'm showered and fed (again), I'm going to bed. Sweet dreams!