Clusterfuck

There is no other way to describe things this week so far, going back to Sunday.

So Sunday I got a flat while I was in the lead of a 100-mile ride.  While it was not a race, it was one bitch of a day, and I consider that an accomplishment in and of itself.  LGL was filthed up to the max, and I planned on cleaning her up yesterday.

Monday I had a rest day and day off from work, and while I had a list a mile long of things I could do, what was most important was to continue resting and eating.  Every muscle was sore--doing all that climbing takes a toll on the arms, chest and back muscles in addition to the legs.  I took a nap, got groceries and cooked a meal that will hold me through the week.  So Monday was all good, and I tried to retain my good feelings from a weekend away.

Tuesday saw the return of the remodeling crew.  Around 10AM, I come downstairs into my kitchen (one of the last bastions of cleanliness, although "clean" is a relative term now) and feel like I'm slipping on the floor.  I look at the bottom of my shoes and there is a fine coating of some sort of dust on them.  My guy had taken down the plastic barrier from the kitchen to the family room, was removing the stairs, and someone else was sanding wood down there.  I tried not to throw a fit at this stupidity, and instead asked the present crew to reattach the plastic door because I just will not put up with that dust coming upstairs.

I requested that some trash be moved away from part of my patio so I could use the hose so I could clean bikes later in the day.  It was moved.  Just before 1PM, I headed out the door on Skull Kingdom on a beautiful day for a 2-hour ride including hill repeats.  I was skeptical about my ability to manage hills, but I'd had a Coke just prior, as I was still feeling peaked from Sunday, and I'd run just over 4 in the AM.  No sooner than I hit the button on the Powertap, I see the head unit is dead.  Fuck.  Oh well, I can ride without that.  I put it back in the house and headed out.

Sometimes when I ride with no indicators, I do pretty well, as in IMLP 2009, with no power and no speed, no nothing, and it was a PR.  I headed east, and felt mostly a crosswind, but I didn't care.  I immediately popped into the BCR and was having some fun and surprisingly didn't feel too bad at all.  It was nice to ride on some easy hills compared to that shit on Sunday.

I was on my way back home thinking I'd do the hill repeats in this other area that I would need to pass by home to get to, but instead decided I'd use the 1-mile hill that I do run hill repeats on for the bike.  First one, great, second one, better, third one just starting out and flat tire.  OK, I'm good at this.  Pull the old tube out, put new one in, run an entire CO2 and it's not inflating.  Try the second CO2 and no good, either.  Fuck me.  So I call my remodeler guy and ask him to bring my pump, I'm only 3 miles from home, easy-peasy.  Well it takes him like 35 minutes to get there.  He had to jump the now missing stairs to get upstairs for the pump since I'd locked the front door and he didn't have a key.  Then he took some crazy route that ended up taking way too long, and tells me he first thought The Stick was the pump!  Um...no.

So I try my pump, no go, it's a bad tube.  By this time, I've run out of time to keep fucking with it, so we put my bike in his van and drive home.  I was like fuck it all, ate lunch, worked, then decided I'd better mow the lawn while I had time (I could work late), then I set up to clean bikes.  I hooked up the hose system and it was leaking in 2 places.  Fuck.  I'd paid to have these all pristine with no leaks, but guess not, huh?  Got one of them doctored to at least not leak so much, and I cleaned Clipless Fuck first, then LGL all nice and pretty.  Finished work, then I returned back to finish Skull Kingdom's flat.

I had to go into my crawlspace to find a replacement tire, because it was time to change the one on Skull Kingdom as it had seen lots of trainer time and was the original from when I got the bike in 2010, so it was quite worn.  In retrospect, I should have changed it sooner, because that may have caused the flat, but oh well, hindsight is 20-20.  So I go into the crawlspace and guess what?  Every fucking thing in there is covered with dust.  I am too pissed off to make a stink about this, but I can recover from it--most of my stuff that I moved out of the family room is in boxes or bags and should be OK, but still I'm pissed.

I took the other tube that had been on the bike, put it in there, tried to get the tire on, but it's got a tough bead, so I figured I'd just inflate it a bit and let it sit overnight to stretch.  Fine.  Remodelers left, and I had to lock the back door (with a brand new lock on it) from the outside, which I did.  Ate dinner, watched some TV, turn out the lights to sleep and I hear BANG!  I figured the other tube had blown, went downstairs and I was right.  Fuck.  But I laughed.  I'm like, let's keep this clusterfuck going, shall we? 

I did manage to sleep OK, even though I woke around 1AM and my head was just spinning.  I know this is all stupid shit, but it's been one day after the other like this.  So this morning I wake up, have coffee and breakfast, and even though I had a swimsuit out from the weekend that I hadn't used upstairs, I wanted to wear a different one, so I go outside to open the back door so I can get to the laundry room where all my swimsuits are. 

I put the key in the lock, turn it, can hear the dead bolt release, but the door won't open.  Fuck.  Try again.  No.  Door is stuck closed.  I'm pissed.  Oh well, I don't have time for this shit now, so I go and swim, call my guy and tell him the door is fucked, but I will live until he returns tomorrow to fix it, but he will have to jump the stairs which aren't supposed to be walked on just yet. 

When I got back from swimming, I tried all the other 4 brand new keys and they barely even work in the lock.  I call to update the remodeler on this.  I'm pissed, but what are you going to do?  I have put a new tube into Skull Kingdom's wheel, and am letting the tire stretch again.  Hopefully, I'll get that all straight by end of today.  Tonight I have my night class, and I am just not in the mood.  But I don't want to have to do a make up class, so I'll be there after what I hope is a long nap, after I go for a run.

This taper isn't going so well.  If I get through it and make it to Triple T in one piece, I will be happy!