I am a fat ass!

Yup, you've read it correctly. I am officially a fat ass. Whoever said that titanium has the strongest strength to weight ratio is just simply incorrect!

On Saturday morning at 5:05am I was riding the bike when all of a sudden the left side of my bike seat dropped down slightly. I reached down and pulled it up. I thought to myself, "that was weird maybe the seat is loose." About a minute later it dropped down again, so I reached down again and fixed it. This went on for about three miles until I got really frustrated. I was meeting a friend at 5:45am to ride so I made the decision to sprint home and tighten the seat before I met her. Luckily I was about four miles from my house.

When I got into my apartment and turned on the light I realized that the seat wasn't loose. I broke one of the rails on the seat. The seat has titanium rails for goodness sake. Titanium is suppose to be one of the lightest and strongest metals. I know I've gained a pound or two this week, I tipped the scale at 154 on Saturday, but seriously I don't think that I should be breaking bike seats. This is just more proof that I am covering distances that bikes aren't designed for. Man 1 Machine 0. Man beats machine!

Since I had to meet Shenna in about 10 minutes I had to switch bikes. I took all the bottles, the lights and the food off of my triathlon bike and put it on my road bike. Sometimes it is nice to have more than one bike. People need options! Here's the catch though- about a month ago I cracked the rear rim on my road bike. Not because I am a fat ass but because the Bontrager wheels on it are crap. Sorry Bontrager...they are crap! So when I was swapping all of the stuff from bike to bike I also had to swap the rear wheel. Because Bontrager uses a "special" spacer on the rear cassette the spacing is slightly different. What does that mean you ask??? It means that when I am in 5 of the 10 gears in the back and stand up to pedal the bike shifts on it's own. Since the spacing is slightly off the bike rides in between gears and shifts automatically. So now I have a bike with a broken seat and a bike that shifts at the most inopportune time. What a way to start off a Saturday huh!

This actually worked to my benefit though. I had two options at this point. I could be stressed out and upset that things weren't going according to plan or just adapt and roll with the punches. It is no surprise that I am a planner and have a schedule so I am not one to adapt to change well. I used this as an opportunity to work on my patience and ability to adapt in these types of situations. If something were to happen in my race I would need to adapt so this was good practice. I took some deep breaths and back out the door I went...

Each weekend I learn and discover something new about myself. Training for this race truly has been a great experience. Once the race is over and I can get back to a more normal existence I will have more than just the satisfaction of completing my goal. I will have a deeper and more clear understanding of myself.

48 days and 281.2 miles until that moment though...