Day of the destructive tire tubes...

Although I was a bit tired from the weekend' activities, I managed to hitch a ride with my brother to the airport this morning. Getting through Burbank Airport was easy as usual, just the normal hub-bub airport security checkpoint stuff. I was back in San Francisco by 1pm, and stopped by Mike's Bikes to chat with Dan & pickup some new tubes, CO2 cartridges & a cycle computer.

He recommended that I get something which will allow me to work on both my cadence & also monitor speed, total distance, etc...I decided on the Micro Wireless CatEye Computer.

I headed home, fixed my rear tube (with help of my roommate) and headed off shortly thereafter for my 20 miles Marin Headlands session.
The ride itself was pretty normal; heavy foot & cycle traffic on the bridge, and tourists attempting to look back towards the city through the heavy fog. As I continued my ascent through the Headlands, the wind kicked up & the fog got extremely dense. Regardless of weather, the Headlands loop is by far my favorite ride that I've found in the bay area.
I continued towards the westernmost part of the area, where I found the coolest YMCA on the planet! It is nestled amongst abandoned army facilities, and is no more than 1/4 mile to the Pacific Ocean.
Just as I passed the YMCA to snap the last photograph, I looked down and found that my rear tire was AGAIN flat! I was miles from any real help, and started to panic. Then I remembered, being the smart guy that I am...I had packed an extra tube & C02 tank. Phew! So I flipped my bike upside-down on the side of the road, and went to work. The first time I repaired my tube, it took me nearly half an hour...this time I had a good idea of how to do it & spent no more than 5 minutes getting the job done.

Ft Cronkite & Pacific Ocean

I continued through the valley portion of the Headlands, and through the one-way tunnel. I thought it would be interesting to post the photograph for people to see...as a cyclist you actually can push a button which allows a little extra time to get through the tunnel before you are met with head on traffic.
After that, it was the normal route back to the city. I beat my time on the Headlands loop again, start-to-finish it was about an hour and a half.

The toughest portion of today's ride was repairing a flat on the spot, but i did quite well considering my relative inexperience with the bike!

Training tomorrow with PacWest Athletics, we're doing the same ride I believe.

Check back soon!