Unintended Brick

This morning I received the joyous news that:

my boss's flu has become pneumonia

my assistant would be out with car trouble

they would be turning off the water to our building immediately, no word on restoration

Another day without the boss? Okay, that's cool. But no assistant and no running water, either?

Not. Cool. At. All.

Water line breakages around our building are a fact of life. We get them several times a year. When we're lucky, someone bothers to give us a few minutes' notice and at least tell us what's going on. So it was nice they said something, but I hadn't even had my first cup of coffee yet, so this was going to be serious.

Because I was the only person in the business office, I stuck it out as long as I could. The university made some inquiries and got another building opened to us at the far end of the complex where we rent, so that helped. The restrooms were small, smelly and without paper towels, but they at least looked clean. I've seen worse. I held out until 3:00 and then went home.

I was pretty happy to find myself at home early, so I set up the trainer, queued up some music and hopped on my bike. After about twenty minutes, I started noticing that my rear wheel was slipping where the tire meets the resistance bar. Odd. It felt fine when I started. Maybe I just didn't notice because my quads were stiff and I needed to warm up.

Nope. Something was definitely amiss. I paused Coach Troy and felt the back tire. A bit low. Okay, no big deal, right? I got out the pump and immediately all heck broke loose, so to speak. My slow leak suddenly became a very fast leak and in seconds my rear wheel was useless.

Great.

My mind ran through my options. I didn't feel like changing a tube. Especially not on the rear wheel. Cogs, grease, just the general hassle of it. I could finish up on the elliptical machine. I could run on the treadmill. I could go run the trails. Or I just take a shower, have dinner and call it a day.

No, my muscles were warm and I had only done twenty minutes. That's not a workout. Gotta do something. Pretty day outside. Might be fun to run the small loop on the bayou. That's about two miles, counting from where I start and finish in the little park on Jackson Hill. But my quads-- if I wanted to torture them with hills, I wouldn't have set up the bike in the first place. Maybe…

I looked at the bike again. I so did not want to change a tire. And it was such a pretty day out.

Screw the quads.

So I did a quick change and enjoyed the last bit of sunshine before the sun went down. The banks of the bayou were green with early clover and the sun was warm on my bare shoulders. I took it at a nice quick pace and was back home, cooldown included, in twenty minues.

It wasn't the workout I had planned, but it was a good one.

I hope my office has water tomorrow.

Recent Workouts
Today: 20 minute bike, 2 mile run
Wednesday: Rest. Felt lazy and cranky
Tuesday: 30 minute elliptical, 30 minute core and strength training