Well, in 9 days I will be leaving for Nantes, France, where I will somehow attempt to keep up my training. My incredibly understanding mother ultimately realized that I need a road bike. This makes me approximately 85% less anxious about this undertaking. I'm not getting anything snazzy like the bikes I'm looking to buy when I get back to the States in January, but a super-entry level road bike (kind of like I have now) that will let me get in a few hundred miles. I'm pretty excited because I have heard Nantes is pretty temperate. I mean, sure, it gets cold, but not Chicago-cold. In other words, I may be able to bike through my entire stay.
Luckily, I found this store called Decathlon only 3.5 km away from where I'm staying!! YES. WIN. While I'm tempted to look at these road bikes with the critical eye I have developed from learning more and more about bikes, I am attempting to force myself to recognize that I will only use this for a few months. Regardless, I'm excited to have this store so close to me because I know I will spend entirely too much time developing a triathlon-related vocabulary. Haha So far I have learned that cadre = frame, fourche = fork, and a road bike is "vélo route" now... how to say "shifters." I have a feeling derailleur might be derailleur...
After conference championships (which is this weekend, on September 3) this blog will almost certainly completely focus on my experiences of attempting to continue tri in another country. AH!
Monday, August 29, 2011
Monday, August 15, 2011
A race, a PR, a recap
Finally my summer classes and internship are down. Now I have nothing to do but prepare for France and focus on tri. Get prepared for an influx of updates! It's about time.
I just raced the Sylvania olympic-distance triathlon in, you guessed it, Sylvania, OH.
Brad, Kendyl and I drove out to Ohio on Saturday, stuffing our faces with entirely too many Matt's fig bars. Matt's, excitingly enough, is one of the newest sponsors of NU Tri, thanks to yours truly. We (slash I) really could not be more excited. We all use fig bars as pre-race nutrition especially for our carbo-loading and now we get them at a delicious discount. om nom nom nom
I had set myself up for a pretty disappointing race. My running and biking had been very slow in the past few weeks since I'd finished Evergreen back in July. After being hit by a car a week before the race (oh yeah, I was hit by a car. It was at a stop sign and I'm totally fine, but FYI it happened), I wasn't even sure if I would race, but my coach told me to stay signed up and only quit if I absolutely felt awful. So I listened and was feeling fine so I raced.
A few weeks back, Kendyl (who is a fantastic swimmer) helped me out with my swimming technique. Since then, I had really been focusing a lot on practicing my swim stroke. The water in Olander lake was very warm. Honestly, in comparison to the air temperature, it felt like taking a bath. I was lucky enough this time, to stay with my wave for a good portion of the swim and then as soon as they dropped me, the next one caught me and I hung on to them. In the end, I was out of the water in 35 min! That's a full 6 minutes off my time from Evergreen. We had a looonnnggg run to transition so in the end it was a 37 min swim time which is still 4 min off my swim time. When I got out of the water to see my watch said 35 min, I was newly inspired to actually give this race a shot. I had a pretty average 1:34 transition and then headed out to the bike.
The bike course was flat and WINDY... oh and rainy. My new burst of adrenaline was quickly depleted when I struggled to push 17 mph on the bike. This is MY leg. If I can't perform on the bike, my race is kind of a disaster. So for the first 10 miles, I alternated between being depressed that I couldn't keep pace and yelling at myself to keep pace. It didn't go all that well. Then on a nice right turn on to a bumpy road I lost my pack of shot bloks, my only race nutrition, only having eaten 2 of them thus far. I panicked a little that I would get side cramps from lack of electrolytes, but decided there was nothing I could do about it. I chugged my water and continued on my depressing bike leg in the wind and rain. But soon enough we came to the turn around and with 14 miles to go, the wind was at my back so I cranked it up to 20 mph and told myself I could hold it and make up for the bad first half. Thankfully, I did hold about 19.5-20.5 for those last 14 miles. I didn't quite make up for the bad first 10 miles, but I yanked my average speed up to 18.6 and was off the bike in 80 min. It wasn't as good as my 76 min finish last time or as fast as my 20 mph average goal pace, but it wasn't the worst either.
The run was the one thing I wanted to push in this race. It was a flat course. It was gently raining. It was mild if not cold weather and my goal was to break 9 min/mile pace. I took the first mile easy which ended up being about a 9:30. I had found a running buddy who was chatting me up and I realized I couldn't let him drag me down. I pushed a little harder on the second mile and he stayed with me. Still, I finished that mile a little too far over the 18 min mark. On mile 3 I finally started kicking it into a higher gear. I saw a guy loping along from Ohio State and thought "time to snag another place for NU" so I barely pulled past him and then dropped him (unfortunately, along with my running buddy). Soon enough, my running buddy caught up to me and managed to keep pace. Another guy joined us and I was happy he started to talk to him and not me, but also happy to hear this conversation taking place to get my mind off the pain. Soon enough, I began to feel a pain in my chest - something I'd been experiencing lately on runs if I took it out a little too hard. I tried to push through it, but the pain began to escalate so I knew that the best thing to do would be just walk my heart rate back down to zone 1. My chatting runner friends dropped me while I waited a few seconds for recovery. Soon enough I was back to normal trying to bridge the gap I'd created. In a few minutes I found my running buddy walking a bit. I asked if he was okay and he assured me he was fine and quickly attempted to meet my pace. We cruised over the mile 4 marker and I thought "2 to go, let's pick it up." I knew I was hitting pace there and it hurt. My thighs were dying but 2.2 miles was nothing - 20 min max. as we rounded the corner to find the 5 mile mark, I continued to speed up a bit. At a half mile to go, my running buddy completely dropped me. I was disappointed to see how much energy reserve he had as I cruised along, probably now holding a very painful 8:30 pace. Finally seeing the finish line, I picked it up to probably around an 8 min pace, crossing at 2:56:56. Again, breaking 3 hours and a little bit better than last time. In the end, I only kept 9:05 pace and was a bit disappointed, but it was still 19 sec/mile better than my pace at Evergreen.
It was an interesting race and next I'll be met with rolling hills on the bike course of Muncie, IN for conference championships. I took 17th in the collegiate women's group. Kendyl took 14th. Brad took 7th and had the best bike leg in the collegiate men's group by 7 secs!
I just raced the Sylvania olympic-distance triathlon in, you guessed it, Sylvania, OH.
Brad, Kendyl and I drove out to Ohio on Saturday, stuffing our faces with entirely too many Matt's fig bars. Matt's, excitingly enough, is one of the newest sponsors of NU Tri, thanks to yours truly. We (slash I) really could not be more excited. We all use fig bars as pre-race nutrition especially for our carbo-loading and now we get them at a delicious discount. om nom nom nom
I had set myself up for a pretty disappointing race. My running and biking had been very slow in the past few weeks since I'd finished Evergreen back in July. After being hit by a car a week before the race (oh yeah, I was hit by a car. It was at a stop sign and I'm totally fine, but FYI it happened), I wasn't even sure if I would race, but my coach told me to stay signed up and only quit if I absolutely felt awful. So I listened and was feeling fine so I raced.
A few weeks back, Kendyl (who is a fantastic swimmer) helped me out with my swimming technique. Since then, I had really been focusing a lot on practicing my swim stroke. The water in Olander lake was very warm. Honestly, in comparison to the air temperature, it felt like taking a bath. I was lucky enough this time, to stay with my wave for a good portion of the swim and then as soon as they dropped me, the next one caught me and I hung on to them. In the end, I was out of the water in 35 min! That's a full 6 minutes off my time from Evergreen. We had a looonnnggg run to transition so in the end it was a 37 min swim time which is still 4 min off my swim time. When I got out of the water to see my watch said 35 min, I was newly inspired to actually give this race a shot. I had a pretty average 1:34 transition and then headed out to the bike.
The bike course was flat and WINDY... oh and rainy. My new burst of adrenaline was quickly depleted when I struggled to push 17 mph on the bike. This is MY leg. If I can't perform on the bike, my race is kind of a disaster. So for the first 10 miles, I alternated between being depressed that I couldn't keep pace and yelling at myself to keep pace. It didn't go all that well. Then on a nice right turn on to a bumpy road I lost my pack of shot bloks, my only race nutrition, only having eaten 2 of them thus far. I panicked a little that I would get side cramps from lack of electrolytes, but decided there was nothing I could do about it. I chugged my water and continued on my depressing bike leg in the wind and rain. But soon enough we came to the turn around and with 14 miles to go, the wind was at my back so I cranked it up to 20 mph and told myself I could hold it and make up for the bad first half. Thankfully, I did hold about 19.5-20.5 for those last 14 miles. I didn't quite make up for the bad first 10 miles, but I yanked my average speed up to 18.6 and was off the bike in 80 min. It wasn't as good as my 76 min finish last time or as fast as my 20 mph average goal pace, but it wasn't the worst either.
The run was the one thing I wanted to push in this race. It was a flat course. It was gently raining. It was mild if not cold weather and my goal was to break 9 min/mile pace. I took the first mile easy which ended up being about a 9:30. I had found a running buddy who was chatting me up and I realized I couldn't let him drag me down. I pushed a little harder on the second mile and he stayed with me. Still, I finished that mile a little too far over the 18 min mark. On mile 3 I finally started kicking it into a higher gear. I saw a guy loping along from Ohio State and thought "time to snag another place for NU" so I barely pulled past him and then dropped him (unfortunately, along with my running buddy). Soon enough, my running buddy caught up to me and managed to keep pace. Another guy joined us and I was happy he started to talk to him and not me, but also happy to hear this conversation taking place to get my mind off the pain. Soon enough, I began to feel a pain in my chest - something I'd been experiencing lately on runs if I took it out a little too hard. I tried to push through it, but the pain began to escalate so I knew that the best thing to do would be just walk my heart rate back down to zone 1. My chatting runner friends dropped me while I waited a few seconds for recovery. Soon enough I was back to normal trying to bridge the gap I'd created. In a few minutes I found my running buddy walking a bit. I asked if he was okay and he assured me he was fine and quickly attempted to meet my pace. We cruised over the mile 4 marker and I thought "2 to go, let's pick it up." I knew I was hitting pace there and it hurt. My thighs were dying but 2.2 miles was nothing - 20 min max. as we rounded the corner to find the 5 mile mark, I continued to speed up a bit. At a half mile to go, my running buddy completely dropped me. I was disappointed to see how much energy reserve he had as I cruised along, probably now holding a very painful 8:30 pace. Finally seeing the finish line, I picked it up to probably around an 8 min pace, crossing at 2:56:56. Again, breaking 3 hours and a little bit better than last time. In the end, I only kept 9:05 pace and was a bit disappointed, but it was still 19 sec/mile better than my pace at Evergreen.
It was an interesting race and next I'll be met with rolling hills on the bike course of Muncie, IN for conference championships. I took 17th in the collegiate women's group. Kendyl took 14th. Brad took 7th and had the best bike leg in the collegiate men's group by 7 secs!
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
The dish on running lit
I am a little more than halfway through Once a Runner by John L. Parker. You may now, of course, commence your judgments as they may be. I have been told/heard that the two running books TO READ are this and Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. I am no authority on Born to Run as I have not yet read it and I will post a review on it once I've finished (probably by Friday, considering I started reading on yesterday). So far it's an easy read with a some flowery passages complete with big words thrown in here and there. Follows this great college runner and the whole destructive path of achievement that runners (aka cross-country, track, track-ers) put themselves on. I am not unfamiliar with it. Though I happily call myself a "recreational runner" I would say I have had enough friendships/relationships with these cross-country, track, track-ers to be familiar with the lifestyle. Similarly, I'd say with triathlon I have grown to be a little more serious about the sport than your average "recreational runner."
Conveniently, Amazon.com has compiled lists of both the "most popular running literature" and the "best running literature" just in case you're hungry for more, but this is what I am going to give you.
But for my next bite out of running "literature," I would like to bring up the topic of Runner's World magazine. Forgive me for saying this, but Runner's World seems to be a bit of a running joke among runners. A loving running joke, but a running one, nonetheless (pun conveniently intended). I had my first year-long subscription to Runner's World this year. Up until this past fall, RW was something I picked up in airports for plane rides - which were, indeed, rather common. As I got more knowledgeable and serious about running, I became acutely aware of how little I was actually getting from my hour+ long reading sessions of the magazine. Slowly I began to read less and less until now I'm not even sure I've looked at my past few issues.
"There are three things that make you a worse runner: a car, a girlfriend, and a subscription to Runner's World." By a show of hands, who has heard that one before?
Depending on who you are, you may or may not know I have a little bit of background in journalism and when I'm not being an over-enthusiastic triathlete, I work on marketing and public relations for theater. Journalism is one of my secret loves that I use to salt-and-pepper all the other things I do with my life (thus the blog...sort of). My take on RW (and that of many runner's) is that they're so focused on catering to the "recreational runner" who is trying to motivate themselves into their first race that they sort of lose sight of what more competitive runner's are looking for in literature about, well, them.
What are they doing right?
Well, personally, I think they're doing a lot right. The recipes for efficient, healthy and delicious nutrition for athletes are a big win. Their feature stories on elite and pro athletes in addition to inspiring stories about runners? Into it. Plus, there are great articles on fun/scenic runs and interesting races.
But then comes the training plans... pages and pages on how to run 5Ks, recommendations on how to do a core workout, and total catering to new runners. Sure, the newbies are important too and probably the key demographic they're aiming to hit (and the larger demographic...) but what happens when the newbies become more serious? They lose them. They've already lost the more elite runners who think their magazine is a joke.
My question is what does an addition spread or two of hard-hitting running news add to their print cost and how much would that add to their demographic?
I mean, I'm sure these big shmancy professional editors have worked this out, but I wonder if there is a viable market for a more hard-hitting running publication. What about adding current stories about elite runners? What about the further development in research and debates about foot strike? What is gained from not catering to more elite runners?
I'm not saying I'm any elite runner or that I really know entirely what I'm talking about, but what I do know is that a lot of material is left out of RW (or as I have a bad habit of calling it: Runner's) and among very serious runners... it isn't taken seriously. I lament this fact and thus decided to muse on the topic for entire too long. :]
Conveniently, Amazon.com has compiled lists of both the "most popular running literature" and the "best running literature" just in case you're hungry for more, but this is what I am going to give you.
But for my next bite out of running "literature," I would like to bring up the topic of Runner's World magazine. Forgive me for saying this, but Runner's World seems to be a bit of a running joke among runners. A loving running joke, but a running one, nonetheless (pun conveniently intended). I had my first year-long subscription to Runner's World this year. Up until this past fall, RW was something I picked up in airports for plane rides - which were, indeed, rather common. As I got more knowledgeable and serious about running, I became acutely aware of how little I was actually getting from my hour+ long reading sessions of the magazine. Slowly I began to read less and less until now I'm not even sure I've looked at my past few issues.
"There are three things that make you a worse runner: a car, a girlfriend, and a subscription to Runner's World." By a show of hands, who has heard that one before?
Depending on who you are, you may or may not know I have a little bit of background in journalism and when I'm not being an over-enthusiastic triathlete, I work on marketing and public relations for theater. Journalism is one of my secret loves that I use to salt-and-pepper all the other things I do with my life (thus the blog...sort of). My take on RW (and that of many runner's) is that they're so focused on catering to the "recreational runner" who is trying to motivate themselves into their first race that they sort of lose sight of what more competitive runner's are looking for in literature about, well, them.
What are they doing right?
Well, personally, I think they're doing a lot right. The recipes for efficient, healthy and delicious nutrition for athletes are a big win. Their feature stories on elite and pro athletes in addition to inspiring stories about runners? Into it. Plus, there are great articles on fun/scenic runs and interesting races.
But then comes the training plans... pages and pages on how to run 5Ks, recommendations on how to do a core workout, and total catering to new runners. Sure, the newbies are important too and probably the key demographic they're aiming to hit (and the larger demographic...) but what happens when the newbies become more serious? They lose them. They've already lost the more elite runners who think their magazine is a joke.
My question is what does an addition spread or two of hard-hitting running news add to their print cost and how much would that add to their demographic?
I mean, I'm sure these big shmancy professional editors have worked this out, but I wonder if there is a viable market for a more hard-hitting running publication. What about adding current stories about elite runners? What about the further development in research and debates about foot strike? What is gained from not catering to more elite runners?
I'm not saying I'm any elite runner or that I really know entirely what I'm talking about, but what I do know is that a lot of material is left out of RW (or as I have a bad habit of calling it: Runner's) and among very serious runners... it isn't taken seriously. I lament this fact and thus decided to muse on the topic for entire too long. :]
Saturday, July 23, 2011
The verdict
Kendyl made the 75-ish minute trip up to Evanston today to teach me how to swim! YAY!
We talked a lot about breaking down the freestyle stroke. Some I knew, some I didn't. Still, here is the breakdown.
Components:
The reach - making sure you not only put your hand in the water, but reach out a little before you start pulling back
The pull - after you reach, begin bending a bit at the elbow. Your hand takes almost an hourglass shaped path as it pulls in close to your body then push back down to your hip. This is where you are literally pushing the water out of your way. Your fingers really need to be closed!
- The back half of your stroke is super important. After you get to your waist, you want to continue pushing the water all the way to your thigh. Once your arm is fully extended you put a little extra effort in to flick the water away from your hip.
The recovery - So your arm is fully extended and it may feel a tad awkward, but you must immediately bend your elbow and pull your hand up, almost to your armpit ... then extend ahead of you and it starts all over again.
Swimming 101. I needed that.
We talked a lot about breaking down the freestyle stroke. Some I knew, some I didn't. Still, here is the breakdown.
Components:
The reach - making sure you not only put your hand in the water, but reach out a little before you start pulling back
The pull - after you reach, begin bending a bit at the elbow. Your hand takes almost an hourglass shaped path as it pulls in close to your body then push back down to your hip. This is where you are literally pushing the water out of your way. Your fingers really need to be closed!
- The back half of your stroke is super important. After you get to your waist, you want to continue pushing the water all the way to your thigh. Once your arm is fully extended you put a little extra effort in to flick the water away from your hip.
The recovery - So your arm is fully extended and it may feel a tad awkward, but you must immediately bend your elbow and pull your hand up, almost to your armpit ... then extend ahead of you and it starts all over again.
Swimming 101. I needed that.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Technique media fun time
I had a friend today ask me if she could do a triathlon if she didn't know how to swim. The irony is that I am the WORST swimmer literally in almost every field I race in. Whoops. Obviously, I told her I found it to be a big challenge and that I cautioned her that swimming is a big hurdle. In short, I think I talked her out of it.
Anyway, I'm back to fixating on my swimming... problems - so here's a "fun" video to break up the text! (At the very least, here's a really impressive guy swimming.)
As you may remember from an earlier post about the exhalation debate - this analyzer seems to be an advocate of the constant exhalation thing... but the fierce iron man dude isn't doing it and he's a fierce iron man dude. Just saying.
Anyway, I'm back to fixating on my swimming... problems - so here's a "fun" video to break up the text! (At the very least, here's a really impressive guy swimming.)
As you may remember from an earlier post about the exhalation debate - this analyzer seems to be an advocate of the constant exhalation thing... but the fierce iron man dude isn't doing it and he's a fierce iron man dude. Just saying.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Race recap: Evergreen Lake Triathlon
For my first race of the season and first successful olympic-distance triathlon, I was off in Hudson, IL racing with the team. It was supposed to be 90 degrees and utterly miserable, but instead it was like 80 degrees with lots of cloud cover and just generally mild climate.
The swim, for once, was fairly successful or as successful as it can be considering I'm such an awful swimmer. I didn't panic and sighting went well and I swam pretty close to the buoys.
My bike was better than I expected. I averaged 19.6 mph which is 1 mph higher than my goal of 18.5 mph. It was nice to look down and see that I finished my bike leg 4 minutes early. That being said, the hills really slowed me down and although I have been working on standing climbs, I wasn't able to do it at all during the race. The corners were awful and I didn't take them nearly as aggressively as I took Memphis.
My run was not awful, but not as fast as I wanted it to be. Partially this may be because I knew I had a full 60 min after the bike to reach my overall time goal so I took it easier than I may have. That being said, just after the 4th mile my chest really hurt... awesome. I finished strong and came in 1 minute and 13 seconds under my time goal of 3 hours.
Lot's of people on the team had great races yesterday and I'm excited for us to head out to Sylvania next month. For now, I've got lots of stuff to work on and nicer bikes to dream of.
The swim, for once, was fairly successful or as successful as it can be considering I'm such an awful swimmer. I didn't panic and sighting went well and I swam pretty close to the buoys.
My bike was better than I expected. I averaged 19.6 mph which is 1 mph higher than my goal of 18.5 mph. It was nice to look down and see that I finished my bike leg 4 minutes early. That being said, the hills really slowed me down and although I have been working on standing climbs, I wasn't able to do it at all during the race. The corners were awful and I didn't take them nearly as aggressively as I took Memphis.
My run was not awful, but not as fast as I wanted it to be. Partially this may be because I knew I had a full 60 min after the bike to reach my overall time goal so I took it easier than I may have. That being said, just after the 4th mile my chest really hurt... awesome. I finished strong and came in 1 minute and 13 seconds under my time goal of 3 hours.
Lot's of people on the team had great races yesterday and I'm excited for us to head out to Sylvania next month. For now, I've got lots of stuff to work on and nicer bikes to dream of.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
My First Road Flat and Other Bedtime Stories
It's hard to believe that I have been cycling as long as I have and haven't actually flatted on the road. Especially when you consider how many tires I've changed and how fast I can change a tube/tire. There is an explanation: I have a training tire and am on my second upgrade of tires-- so really my changing skillzzz are due to my addiction to souping-up my ride.
But this time, the first flat I had to deal with on the road wasn't even my own! My friend Erin, who I have spent a few of our recent long Saturday rides exploring Illinois with realized her tire looked a little... strange before we left. It kind of looked lumpy/dented. I can't really explain it. Enough to worry that the actual wheel might've been warped (thankfully, it wasn't). We decided to exchange her tire with my spare and still use her tube because it appeared okay. Unfortunately, it must've not been so "okay" because she flatted 12 miles into our ride. So I lent her my spare tube...
SO HERE IS THE IMPORTANT PART OF THE STORY:
CO2 is a PAIN THE BUTT
My first time dealing with CO2 was with Erin's tire. This time the canister didn't screw quite "correctly" into the charger and we lost all of it before we could even put it in her damn tire.
Oh no! What did we do you ask?
Well I went all out for about 15 minutes to the nearest bike store: Trek (which is conveniently located next to VQ so they know our team) and bought some more CO2 and tubes. In the meantime, some nice cyclist with a hand pump found Erin and put air in her tire. She met me at Trek and topped it off.
We were on our merry way for a little over an hour until, apparently, it was my turn. Baby's first flat. At first I wasn't even sure I flatted, and then I was sure when my wheel started thunking. :] Again, Erin and I attempted the magical feat of changing a tire. This time, the CO2 worked!... but I couldn't get it off in time (because I had a 16g canister) and so it overfilled my tube and popped it. So then I tried to use what little was left in the second tube and then some of the other CO2 canister I bought, but it all was an ultimate failure and I ended up biking around 4 miles on a flat. AWESOME.
Advice.
16g CO2 fills up to about 130 PSI. Great if you have some control... not great if you don't. Probably good for races when you need the air pressure, probably not the best for general rides.
12g CO2 fills up to about 90 PSI. Sure, this doesn't put you at a great inflation, but it's good enough to ride for a few miles to the nearest bike store! (Especially if you are in a semi-urban/sub-urban/bike-friendly setting where bike stores are common. There is probably one about every 3 or 4 miles for 16-18 miles out from Northwestern.)
Also, CO2 sucks for longevity. If you are going to be around a bike store and you are on a long ride... I'd say stop, empty out your tires, and have them refill entirely with a pump/air compressor. Even if you don't, be sure to do so when you get home/before your next ride. Don't top off CO2 filled tires with a pump. Take the extra minute to totally deflate them and refill.
Happy riding!
Also, race this weekend: Evergreen Lake Triathlon! Pictures, I'm SURE will follow. (Even if they aren't mine.) Second Olympic of the season!
But this time, the first flat I had to deal with on the road wasn't even my own! My friend Erin, who I have spent a few of our recent long Saturday rides exploring Illinois with realized her tire looked a little... strange before we left. It kind of looked lumpy/dented. I can't really explain it. Enough to worry that the actual wheel might've been warped (thankfully, it wasn't). We decided to exchange her tire with my spare and still use her tube because it appeared okay. Unfortunately, it must've not been so "okay" because she flatted 12 miles into our ride. So I lent her my spare tube...
SO HERE IS THE IMPORTANT PART OF THE STORY:
CO2 is a PAIN THE BUTT
My first time dealing with CO2 was with Erin's tire. This time the canister didn't screw quite "correctly" into the charger and we lost all of it before we could even put it in her damn tire.
Oh no! What did we do you ask?
Well I went all out for about 15 minutes to the nearest bike store: Trek (which is conveniently located next to VQ so they know our team) and bought some more CO2 and tubes. In the meantime, some nice cyclist with a hand pump found Erin and put air in her tire. She met me at Trek and topped it off.
We were on our merry way for a little over an hour until, apparently, it was my turn. Baby's first flat. At first I wasn't even sure I flatted, and then I was sure when my wheel started thunking. :] Again, Erin and I attempted the magical feat of changing a tire. This time, the CO2 worked!... but I couldn't get it off in time (because I had a 16g canister) and so it overfilled my tube and popped it. So then I tried to use what little was left in the second tube and then some of the other CO2 canister I bought, but it all was an ultimate failure and I ended up biking around 4 miles on a flat. AWESOME.
Advice.
16g CO2 fills up to about 130 PSI. Great if you have some control... not great if you don't. Probably good for races when you need the air pressure, probably not the best for general rides.
12g CO2 fills up to about 90 PSI. Sure, this doesn't put you at a great inflation, but it's good enough to ride for a few miles to the nearest bike store! (Especially if you are in a semi-urban/sub-urban/bike-friendly setting where bike stores are common. There is probably one about every 3 or 4 miles for 16-18 miles out from Northwestern.)
Also, CO2 sucks for longevity. If you are going to be around a bike store and you are on a long ride... I'd say stop, empty out your tires, and have them refill entirely with a pump/air compressor. Even if you don't, be sure to do so when you get home/before your next ride. Don't top off CO2 filled tires with a pump. Take the extra minute to totally deflate them and refill.
Happy riding!
Also, race this weekend: Evergreen Lake Triathlon! Pictures, I'm SURE will follow. (Even if they aren't mine.) Second Olympic of the season!
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