Heating Things Up

Mountain biking is harder than I remember. 

I changed the tires on my bike (because I can’t afford two bikes) back to the all-terrain tires that were original to the bike.  I also reinstalled the rear suspension all in preparation for the off-road triathlon this Saturday. 

Once I had this completed, I decided I would like to go for a trail ride at the Anne Springs Close Greenway.  I had planned a 6-7 mile ride and then a 1-2 mile trail run to do sort of a “mountain brick”.  The only time that I could get away was during nap time, which happens to be the hottest part of the day.  If you live in the south, you know how hot it was on Saturday.  It was in the mid nineties, but with high humidity, it felt even hotter.  There was very little, if any, breeze and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky to block the sun’s heat.  The one positive was at least on the trails, the trees do a good job of shading the sun.

I realized early on that I was not used to riding on trails and have become more accustomed to the smooth surface of the asphalt.  I figured there would be some adjustment, but since I have ridden a mountain bike on these trails numerous times, I figured I would not need that much.  However, it has been almost a year since.  About a mile into it, I notice that my pace is not that much faster than my normal running pace and it worried me a bit.  I ended up doing a little over 7 miles, but it took me over an hour.  See the details here.  Compare that with my time on the bike leg of Tri the Rock Triathlon of about 50 minutes for the 16 mile ride and you can see how much slower that is.  I did get more comfortable throughout the ride, so I hope I will be okay this Saturday.  I just hope I don’t embarrass myself!

The worst thing that happened was that when I got home, just looking for some relief from the heat in the air conditioning, I noticed that it felt just as warm inside as it did outside.  I checked the thermostat and it said it was cooling and set to a temperature of 74, but the actual temperature was reading 85.  I asked my wife if she had changed it lately and she said no.  I went outside and the fan was not running, so I checked the circuit breaker.  Tripped.  So I turned it back on and went to check it again.  I could hear it running, but the fan wasn’t spinning.  I gave it a few minutes and checked again.  Tripped again.  Shit.  Luckily we still have a home buyer’s warranty that we renewed last year due to the age of the HVAC system.  I placed a claim and then called the repair company and asked if it were at all possible to get Saturday service.  They told me for an extra $50, they would come.  Okay!  The guy came out around 6:30 and it took him all of about 15 minutes to replace a capacitor that had blown, apparently due to overheating.

I took Sunday off since Jenn had to work and today is an off day.  I will swim tomorrow and Thursday mornings and run Wednesday morning.  I might do a bit of jogging on the trails on Friday, but I won’t do much.  Hopefully this will leave me prime to not suck at the bike leg too much.