I had a huge big day planned and I was excited about it, but unfortunately it turned out to be an expensive and epic fail.
The 8 early with Chad at tempo certainly didn't go the way I wanted. I know it was a lot of uphill, but I was breathing SO hard and had to stop at mile 2 and at 4 to drink and regroup before setting off again. This, more than anything, showed me how much my slacking has taken me down a notch from where I was just a month ago. poo.
The idea was to push the pace on the uphill what I could, then tempo my goal 10K pace on the downhill (6:50). I think we did 7:50-8:00 on the uphills, then the first downhill mile was 6:46 - perfect, but then I dropped off as the downhill did. 7:01, 7:05 and then as Chad drug me widing through his neighborhood - up and flat and just little downs I fell apart. I tried to remind myself "uphill finish at Des News" but it didn't seem to help: 7:30 was the final call for the last mile of 'tempo' - whatever, I guess I just need a big kick in the pants like this to refocus my attention and training. AP: 7:34
Came home and grabbed a little nap until my sister came and picked me up to ride the tri course at the rec center with them. My front tire was completely FLAT. poo. I pumped it up trying to avoid a tire change, it was down from 110psi to 80 in just the ride (on the car) to the rec center. I pumped it back up and crossed my fingers. I got through the nearly 13 mile ride and it was at 60, but it held out.
Since my friend was then coming at 11 to do a mini-tri workout I decided to stop pushing my luck and change the tire. Perfect. We loaded up her car and headed to Blackridge. Did a 1500M swim (her first in a wet suit and she rocked it!) then pulled the bikes out. Guess whos front tire was flat...again?!? Well, one last tube and one last cartidge left to go. Fail. BUT, I finally found the tiny little thorn that you couldn't FEEL on the inside of the tire (I checked each change!). Okay, so I borrowed Steph's tube with promise of quick replacement and got her cartridge out, but there was only a gun...no cartridge (you use CO2 cartridges in a 'gun' to instantly fill tubes on the run). So, I at least had a tube. We went back to my house and got my pump to fill up the tube, but the tube had a hole in it!! Before I even put it in my tire it wouldn't inflate. Well, I called it. Obviously, karma didn't want us out on the road today. I also then missed my last 4 miles I was planning on, because by this time I'd wasted the full 3 hours we had to just swim 1500M. Whatever - FAIL!
So, I had 2 big fails today and well, I'm feeling it. Kind of down about it all. Then, I take the bike to the shop to make sure it wasn't the skins or just the thorn and the handlebars needed to be re-wrapped and I now needed new tubes and cartridges! $75 later I got out of the shop. They are going to put in the new tube so that I don't have to waste another one if it wasn't just the thorn, and I don't get my bike back until tomorrow. Oh well. At least it should be ready to go for my mock half IM on Friday.
I'm tired and want to go to bed. this stinks...just stinks, but tomorrow will be a nice little 'rest' day and I'll get out with the Newtons, so hopefully I can pull out of this funk! | 
