Michael & Liz are Bloggable

I don't feel like writing too much tonight because I'm crazy exhausted. I decided to run home from church today instead of bike and the afternoon heat just really took my energy away. I didn't leave church until about 11:30 and the 17 miles took me 2:42 so I didn't get home until 2PM. By then it was already 90 degrees and crazy humid out. It was not the smartest move I've made.

Here are the numbers. My buffer isn't as large as I want it to be, I can never be sure what happens on any given day so I still don't feel comfortable with 70 miles. I am going to try and build it up throughout the week and hopefully surpass the 100 mile buffer. We'll see though, after the run today, my energy is shot and I'm worried about starting the week off so exhausted. The document is getting too big so I excluded some of the early days. Click it to see it better.

One entertaining event happened while biking that I have to write about. I had a large dragonfly nail me in the forehead on my way home from work. I stopped the bike a half mile later thinking it flew away but realizing I never REALLY saw it fly away. As I took off my helmet it was laying there right in the middle of the helmet not moving. I dropped the bike and slapped the bug away. As I picked the bike back up, my brakes weren't right. Somehow in dropping the bike, my brakes were completely squeezed so the tires wouldn't move. I challenge anyone to stop reading right now and figure out what they think happened? How could dropping the bike to the ground cause my brakes to be engaged for no apparent reason?

My temporary solution was to get my tools out (that I packed in my bag just in case something like this happens) and spend 10 minutes loosening the brakes so I can bike again. It wasn't until next morning that I figured out what happened. I was pulling out of the drive way and as I turned the wheel, my brake prematurely engaged again and stopped me. That made me realize that when I dropped my bike the day before, the handlebars spun around causing the brake lines to tighten up around my handlebars. I turned the handlebars 360 degrees back around and had to tighten my brakes again to adjust for the changes I made the day before.

Hopefully I have no more stories like that the rest of the month. It's funny now and was a good learning experience diagnosing and fixing the brakes on the spot like that, but I was hot and sweaty having to work that out.

"Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain." ~Author Unknown

"When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on." ~Franklin D. Roosevelt