Bike Troubles

"Expensive new bike I can't afford" has been good to me so far. The first time I rode it I knew it would be a good relationship. Unfortunately, I have not been so good to the bike. Of course I've tried, but things just seem to happen to me that don't seem to happen to anyone else. First, I crashed my bike into a curb 3 weeks ago. I lost the road to a car and ran right into a curb going pretty fast. When I got up the bike didn't seem to be too bad off and in fact, it looked better than I felt. I was kind of shaken up though and my shin was killing me so it wasn't until after I got home (had to walk because the front tire was shredded) that I realized that there was a huge dent in the top tube. How I could have missed that before I'm not sure. The dent is probably not that huge but it was, and is, to me. Now I get comments like "That's a nice bike, ohhh, with a big dent". It also feels like there's a dent in my shin to match the one on my bike, but I'm getting over that. So that was bike incident number one.

This Saturday I finally got clipless pedals which I realize is a bit late considering that my ironman is in 2 weeks. I just couldn't really afford them before and when I could it always seemed like the wrong time to get them. We always seemed to have some big ride scheduled that would make getting used to clipless pedals difficult. Anyway, I got them on Saturday and went and rode around the neighborhood with no problems. I was waiting for the inevitable fall but it never came. So Sunday I went out for a short 20 mile ride and felt great. I love the pedals and was especially loving them on the hills. Then with only a few miles to go a guy in a truck on the other side of the road yelled at me to get off the road. It's a 4 lane road and he was on the other side anyway so I don't know what his problem was. While looking at him (not smart) I rode right into a huge crack in the street and my front tire got stuck which caused me to fall (more like tip over). I really wasn't going fast because I had just ridden up a huge hill and was coming to a light. I got up thinking nothing too bad could have happened. But when I got back on the bike the tire wobbled and made a scraping sound every time one part of it touched the brake. Not good. Another slow trek back home with a beat up bike. And the verdict is: The wheel is too bent to be fixed and I need a new one. Definitely can't afford a new wheel right now. But I will somehow.

So I'm stuck with swimming right now. I have been forbidden from running by my coach who says I need to let my shin heal some. I have gotten all my big runs in so I should be ok there. I'm waiting to go back to the bike shop I got my bike from and where we sometimes get good deals in the hopes of them working something out for me. So I'm not biking either. Just swimming. Again.