A Walk to Remember & A Trial By Fire

I'm frustrated with cycling right now. These two stories should illustrate why:

1)I've been waiting all winter for the weather to get good. The weather starts getting alright and I break my hand, thus rendering unable to ride. My hand heals and the weather proceeds to get nasty again. Finally, a day comes and everything lines up perfectly; the weather is nice, I get home from work early, and my hand is feeling good. I ask my mom if she can delay supper for fifteen minutes while I do a quick 15 miles to the end of the bike path and back. There was a little bit of a head wind on the way out, just the way I like it, I get to the end of the trail and will then have the wind at the back on my way in. I do the turn around and am quickly into the mid 20's for speed, then PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF. The back tire goes flat. At this point I am 6 miles from home. It was just going to be a quick ride so I didn't have a spare tube or repair kit. I had left in such a hurry that I didn't even pick up my cell phone. So what else can I start doing, but walking. I walk and walk and walk becoming increasingly aware that I will not be just fifteen minutes late for dinner. I made it half-way by the time I ran into someone who had a phone I could borrow. The woman who lent me her phone was very kind and my dad came to pick me and my bike up. During that time spent walking I thought about the necessity to be prepared and having people in place to help me when I get myself into a situation. Apparently I am a slow learner.

2)After the flat I changed out my tires to the ones I will be using for the tour. I am going with the Continental Gatorskin tires, which are said to be virtually indestructable and capable of going thousands upon thousands of miles without much wear. I did one ride up towards Chicago testing the roads I would take if I decided to do the commute from Northwest Indiana. About 5 of the miles on that ride were very gnarly and made me uneasy about riding them consistently since I would have to swerve out into traffic to avoid tire-eating pot holes. This past Saturday was a little windy, but warm and good enough for another long ride. I decided to head east this time and take the trails out to Chesterton (the only town we will be staying in in Indiana). Twenty-five miles out at a pretty consistent pace and then a short break and I headed back into the wind. I made it ten miles back when I wasn't paying attention and didn't see a rock in the middle of the trail. I never saw the rock, even after I hit it, but it must have been about two inches in height because I bounced pretty high off of it. I maintained control and kept going to the next street crossing. I waited for a couple cars to pass then made my way across, but realized that my back tire had gone flat. My indestructable tires had failed me before I even had one hundred miles on them. I found out later from a friend that I had a pinch puncture caused by hitting the rock and forcing the tube, tire and rim to pinch together making the weakest of the three give. I didn't have a tube because I had used my last one the week before, but I had brought a repair kit which I had never used, but had been told how to use. So my only hope was to fix the tube or face a fifteen mile walk. I succeeded in getting the patch on, but when I pumped up the tire it didn't hold the air to a satisfactory psi. I had wised up and brought my phone this time, but when I looked in my phonebook there was only one person who would have the means to pick me up (my parents were out of town). Luckily, he was available or it would have been a four hour walk.

I really need to work on having a support structure in place and not just relying on myself and the idea that nothing could possibly go wrong. The idea of the rugged individual is appealing, but completely unattainable. My rosy ideas about this tour are peeling away and the weight of what needs to be done before the tour and that of actually riding the tour are starting to pile on. I'm just hoping I get out of this funk soon.