Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Some days...

...Are just meant to be rest days. Today was one of those days.

Today is El Día de Juan Santamaría so there isn't any school so I thought I would take advantage of that fact and get in a nice long run. I got up a little before 5:00 and was out the door a little after 5:00. It was cool and misty, it felt like it was going to be a perfect day. I decided that I was going to do two loops of my favorite route here, a route that goes through the small community of El Progreso then along Río Sucio and then cuts through a cow pasture before coming back into town. However, about thirteen minutes into my run, before I even got to the turn for El Progreso, my foot, which was pretty tender from running for four and a half hours in my Minimuses on rocky roads on Saturday, made me stop running and turn around to walk home.

When I got home, I poked around on the internet for a bit and then decided to get ready for a long bike ride. One of my cranks has been loose, so I tightened that up, filled my bladder, threw the bike pump and multi-tool in my pack, and headed out at about 8:00. I decided that I would do the La Gata route, the route that I ran on Saturday. The first part of "road" is pretty rough, so I was pretty slow, but after about 6k it got relatively smooth so I was able to get into a good rhythm. I hit La Gata, about midway, in a little over an hour. I figured I had about an hour and a half left (about a half marathon with a bunch of hills). I stopped to put a little air in my back tire and tighten up my crank. I knew that I would have to grind on the upcoming hills so I wanted to make sure everything was in order. 

Things were good for a couple more kilometers then I could feel my crank getting loose so I stopped tightened it up and got after it once again. A little further down the road, I again felt my crank slipping so I pulled over and discovered that the nut for my crank was missing. I walked back down the road a bit, but I didn't see anything. I threw my crank and pedal on rack on the back of bike and started pushing. Luckily this section was super hilly so I could coast down and part way up the hills. Eventually I made it to Los Arbolitos (15k still to go) where I found a popsicle stick and using the Leatherman, I was able to create a fastener that kept my crank on for a few more kilometers. I knew I couldn't torque on the precariously attached crank, so I was still hopping off the bike to push it up hills. One of the times I hopped off, the crank inexplicably fell off, so I threw it back on my rack and pushed some more. Then on one of my bumpier downhills the crack and pedal fell off my rack and I wasn't about to back track for a useless bike part.

About 7k out I decided that I would run with my bike. With a couple of good hills to coast down, I made it back home from that spot about as quickly as I normally do running without pushing my bike. On that last stretch I decided my new mantra is going to be, "I might not be strong, but I'm tough."

So my bike ride that I thought was going to be between two and two and half hours ended up being closer to four with an hour and 19 minutes of actual bike riding, but I did get an extra thirty-five minutes of running in.

I think tomorrow I might just sleep in.

Un Árbol outside of Los Arbolitos

1 comment:

josuecorre said...

sorry that happened, at least you got a run in!