Tempting fate.... DON"T DO IT!!!!

The forecast calls for showers this afternoon, but I decided to ride into work anyway. Nothing like a refreshing thunderstorm to help you keep a good quick pace on the ride home. Hopefully, I will have the same luck that I had on Tuesday. By the time I got to my bike, the storms had blown through, and although the road was wet, and the humidity was oppressive.... there was no rain. Stay tuned to see how I make out. (I did bring my rain jacket this time)

The morning ride was an uneventful solo effort. It is nice to have brightness in the sky at 5:20.

It is either me or the Garmin website, but for some reason I am unable to upload the ride from this morning. The strange thing is that I am able to upload the info from the Garmin into the analysis software on the computer, but not up to the web. As soon as I am able to do that, I will post the info from today.

UPDATE: Garmin info below



Afternoon Ride --- This is where tempting fate proved to be a big mistake.

OK, so there were thunderstorms in the forecast for this afternoon. Last night weather.com said between 4 and 6 pm there was a 30% chance. This afternoon when I checked again, there was a 40% chance of T-storms at 5:00. OK, so that is when I am getting on my bike and riding home, maybe I will miss them, or they will be somewhere that I am not.

I got geared up after my train ride and was on the bike at 4:59 headed home. It was partly cloudy but it did not look too bad... except for that patch of clouds over there. I was riding away from them, so maybe I could stay ahead of them and not get too wet. My plan was to ride until it started raining, and if it got too bad, there are several places tha I could find shelter and ride out the storm. Sounds like a great plan, don't ya think?

As I came around the corner of the BWI trail, and began heading east, away from the bad clouds, I heard a "pop" and a fizz. No, it was not an Alka Seltzer... a flat. I knew I shouldn't have tempted fate. But, at this point I am thinking I am still OK because I have a tube and a CO2 cartridge, I can change the tire and still out run the storm. As I was bending over to remove the rear tire, I heard thunder. All I could imagine was having the tire half changed and the sky opening up with rain. So, I walked the bike to the 7-11 just up the road and changed the tire under a tree near the air pump. I was about halfway done when it started to rain. I picked up the bike and the tire and carried it to the gas pumps which were under a roof at 7-11. I got the tire on, filled it with a little bit of air, checked to make sure it was seated correctly before filling it all the way... CRAP. There was a bulge in the tire and upon further inspection I could see that the tire was splitting just above the rim line. Then it started pouring... and blowing... thunder, lightening... the whole 9 yards. It seemed to be right on top of me too. At times I swore the lightening and thunder were simultaneous. If I was still riding, I would have been hunkered down somewhere waiting for this storm to pass.

I called Bev and asked her to come and get me. I knew that if I tried to ride with the split tire, I would end up with another flat, so I was dead in the water so to speak. I took a chance and texted Mike, who works close to where I was, explaining my dilemma. I was hoping that he was still at work and could swing by and pick me up.

As it turned out, I caught him just heading out of his office on his way home. He swung by, put the bike on his truck and we met Bev at Severna Park Middle School. Mike's twins had a performance at 7:00 and although he would have gladly taken me all the way home, we both thought it best to meet Bev at the school so he didn't have to rush and fight traffic to make the performance. He saved the day.

Thanks to Mike for bailing me out. This is the second tire that this has happened to, so maybe they had a bad batch. I will certainly be bringing it to Capital Bikes sometime this weekend. These tires are not cheap, so you would expect them to stay together a little better than that.

The moral of the story is be careful when you tempt fate... because she may just beat you like a red-headed step child.

Check out the disappointing Garmin stats:




Almost immediately,