The weekend that wasn't meant to be

On wednesday night 7/2, my dad realized that he needed a ride to the airport to make his 6:15 flight, since it takes an hour to get there and you are supposed to get there at least an hour before your flight that meant we needed to leave hartford @ 4am. I got done with work @ 2pm and then I followed that up by cutting 25-30 acres of Hay, it doesn't end there. Just as I finish my eyes were a little sore I noticed, went inside and noticed my eyes were totally and utterly bloodshot. Well shortly after that my eyes but more so my right eye began to swell, I quickly took some benedryl but the damage was done. It took until later of friday for my eye to reside. I decided early on that it probably wouldn't be a wise decision to go Mountain bike riding with a partially swollen eye. I was planning to do alot of riding on friday at the John Muir Trails, it just wasn't meant to be. On saturday I went to go see my 97 y/o Great Grandma and my 101 y/o Great Grandma. The 101 y/o Grandma still lives at home by herself and is very very mobile and is not on any regimented prescriptions.

Sunday, I finally decided it was time to do a race. UWW Cycling team put on a 20K TT in La Grange, actually using the same facilities as the John Muir Trails. Well I time trialed then went riding the trails, about 6 or so miles in all of sudden it feels like my ass end it crazy loose turns out got my first flat while riding, EVER. I was like crap, I don't carry a pump or CO2 or a tube or anything, I was in the farthest corner of the trails and with all the moisture we've had recently the mosquitos were really bad. Once you stop in the woods, its doesn't take long for the mosquitos to find you. so I decided, what the hell, I'll ride out of here, so I rode about 4ish miles out of the trail system. I thought for sure I would have destroyed either the rim or the tire, I got back to the car and both were find, I couldn't even tell I had done what I just did. I was riding a completely flat tire over rocks and roots. The wheel only cost me like $30 and the tire was like $10 so I didn't care. The tire got really hot, but other than that I was fine. I went to go change the tub to find out why it blew or should I say more likely to blow. the tube said 1.25"-1.75" I was running a 2" tire. I know you can do this but it effectively makes the tubewall thinner. It was the first time I had ever blown a tube and flatted while riding. I have ridden punctured but not bled down till the next day. 

Instead of fixing it, I threw the bike in my car and just grabbed another bike, I wasn't sure what I wanted to ride, I was riding my salsa, I also had my Trek "cogitory" or my Redline Monocog 29er. Since I was in a 26er mood I decided to give that a go. I rode about another 15 ish miles sticking to the shorter trails and just doing more laps now that I was a little gun shy to go deep into the woods. Called it a day around 6ish and so concluded my weekend of excitment.