When it rains, it pours

Well, Spring Break is over and I'm back at school, and in retrospect I can look back and say it was a pretty good break on the whole, with more than a few bumps along the way, literally and figuratively. Training wise I did quite a few runs, all at night which I rather enjoyed, and did a nice long ride on the W&OD. The latter took me from Route 28 in Centreville all the way out to the school I worked at over the summer in Reston. I used to always enjoy seeing cyclists to greet in the morning. I'm also very pleased with my running regimen over the break, because last night Jamie and I did a five miler to see how we'd fare come race day. I killed it, running a very leisurely nine minute mile all the way through. Bit chafed today though, ouch. Now for the bumps.

Weather on saturday was a bit spotty; it started out the typical dreary overcast it had been for several days. I got in a brief ride to see some neighbors before it started pouring, then headed back to the house to get out of my wet clothes. Then, suddenly, it cleared. I'm talking blue skies and sunshine, awesome stuff. I went out again and got in a long ride before the storm clouds returned, and a nasty headwind started up. Thankfully I was in my own neighborhood by then. Unfortunately, the headwind was strong enough to run me into a curb at fifteen or so mph. The silver lining is that apparently your feet will clip out of the pedals when there's a great enough impact. The bad part was that even though I wasn't attached to my bike anymore, I still ate concrete face first. I busted my lip a bit and dinged up my hands and wrist, but I didn't lose any teeth so I got lucky. Sadly my lip is healing in such a way that it looks like I have a cold-sore, which some of my friends were kind enough to inform me. After brushing myself off a little, I biked the mile or so back to my house, and upon reaching my pipe stem, heard the then unfamiliar sound of my front tire popping. Serendipity, eh?

The icing on the cake came yesterday on the drive back to school. 66 and 81 were teeming with cops; Candace and I saw eight cruisers within one hundred feet of one another at one stretch, each chasing a different car. Sadly, this was after we had already gotten pulled over going 80 in a 65 zone. I have no one to blame but myself, but it certainly doesn't feel good to go from having a spotless driving record to having two speeding tickets, and getting each in the space of a month. Thankfully, I wasn't charged with reckless, and both times had extremely friendly and helpful police officers pull me over. I think it's time for driving school, not just to subtract the demerits, but because I honestly feel like a bad driver and a compulsive speeder now.

So, as the heading above states, when it rains it pours. I'm on the up and up now though, I figure, and things can only get better. My race is only a few days away and I'm confident that I can meet my goal time, not to mention I'll have my own personal tour guide of the city in Jamie. More pertinent to the Bike and Build experience, my bike will be arriving tomorrow! I cannot wait to build it and hit the road in style!

Peace out hombres!