A body check-in, tire problems and a forced rest day

Well, the good news is that half my aches and pains have cleared up since the weekend. My incredibly tight IT band, which had locked up my knee to where I couldn’t put weight on it, pretty much went away by the next day. I’m assuming that was just inflammation from a 62-mile ride followed by a 20-mile run the next day. Note to self: You’re getting old.

The bad news is that my SI joint is still bothering me. Monday was a scheduled rest day from running and I shuffled my schedule to take Tuesday off, too. It was still a little tender on Wednesday but I decided to do a few miles and see how it felt – and it wasn’t bad. It was a little more tender on Thursday but I still gave it a try – and this time it was bad. I made it about 5.5 before calling it quits, and to be honest I was probably dumb to try running at all. So, I am taking a few more days off to rest and stretch and maybe, maybe trying again Sunday.

Sneaking in some hip stretches at the office.

Speaking of shuffled schedules, remember how on Tuesday I moved everything around for a meeting that I had to cancel? And then how I tried to take advantage of the free time by going for a ride that then got cut short because of a flat tire? (That was fun.) Last night I finally had a few minutes to try to fix my flat.

I found a staple in the tire, pulled it out and removed the tube. I found where it had gone through right away and threw on a patch. It was still deflating; I found another hole and threw on another patch. It was still deflating. Well, I didn’t want to waste three patches on an old tube, so I pulled my extra tube out of my flat kit. Lo and behold, it has the WRONG VALVE! I have a pump that fills both Schrader and Presta valves, but the Schraders are too fat to fit through the valve hole in the rim.

Tube problems.

I guess the moral of the story is I should be glad this happened in my living room and not miles away from my car or out on the race course. And of course, I forgot to bring my tire to work today (so I could run to the bike shop on my lunch hour) so I’m hoping the picture I took of the sidewall information is enough to figure out what I need to get back on the road.

All of this is leading to a forced rest day today. I can’t ride on the trainer with a flat tire. (And I literally JUST gave my dad back his old wind trainer, on which I had set up my old steel Huffy.) And I can’t run with a problematic SI joint. So I’m trying to make the best of it: I slept in until a lazy 5:45 a.m. this morning, and we have dinner plans with my parents tonight. I’ll try to get in some stretching in the meantime, and hopefully can get a new tube and do my regular long ride tomorrow.

Nine days 'til race day. Let's hope my tires and joints hold up.