Crash or Walk???

Today I was back on the schedule with my training! I've been doing stuff since Hawaii 70.3, but you know taking it easy and it was nice, but I'm ready to get back in the game!!

Fortunately, my kids have been attending a local Vacation Bible School each day this week from 9-12 so it's given me a little extra time to squeeze some stuff in.

There aren't a lot of places to ride around here locally. And by locally I mean Canton, Georgia. There is one ride I used to do when I first started, but even that was kind of far away from the church my kids were at this morning and since my brick workout was almost 2 hours, I really didn't have any travel time to speak of, so I decided to just ride the roads around here!

I left directly from the church parking lot and headed out on a loop I had pre-determined. Traffic... yes... but I was hoping for the best! :)

Right as I am getting started, this 1970's van gets just a little too close, and it was funny though because as he passed me his side-view mirror on my side was hanging off broken. I thought... "Whoo... that was a close one, especially when apparently this guy has a habit of hitting things on that side of his car!" :)

So on I rode... Feeling good and was even a good girl and did NOT listen to my ipod as I was at least attempting to be as responsible as possible!

Well as I'm riding along... I notice that my watch keeps shifting. I don't have a bike computer per se... I have a clip on my aero bars where I can latch my Garmin 305 onto it. I use that for biking and running, and it works beautifully!! But I kept thinking that I must not have put it on tightly enough as it kept creeping a little further and further away from me.

After riding for about 30 min and reaching the furthest possible point from my car I realize it isn't the watch... it's my handlebars and they are slowly creeping downwards because THEY must not be screwed on tightly enough!!

Then the thought occurs to me that these things could let loose any minute now as I'm leaning on them and when they fall down... I WILL TOO!! I mean I can't ride my bike the entire time without holding onto the handlebars. Maybe for a min or 2, but certainly not for an hour! :)

I thought I could pull over and try fixing them, but I had nothing on me to tighten them up, and I figured it'd be my luck that in trying to fix them I'd do the job of completely breaking them myself and I'd have to walk 10 miles back to my car in bicycle shoes!!

So that was the question... Hop off and walk the dang thing back, or risk the possibility that at any given moment my handlebars would lose that last little grip they had going for them at the moment, and I'd be on my face in the road in the middle of traffic!

As scary as option 2 sounded... walking did NOT sound appealing either. So I took the chance trying very hard to put as little weight on them as possible. You know... the whole finger balance thing! :)

For the next 30 min I rode in fear of the cars and my handlebars! :)

Thank goodness God was on my side today, because I did make it to the local bike shop and ran in and borrowed an allen wrench to fix the darn things! The last 30 min or so of my ride were MUCH more peaceful than the first part!

I'm just really glad I managed to escape crashing or walking!! :)
Be careful out there everyone!
K