My gravel bike has been my riding choice this year, as it is more versatile and the tri-bike hangs in the garage, needing a tune-up and a reason to do it. Most of my weekday rides have been in the 20-25 mile range and I have stayed mainly on the local paved trail. Some of it is smooth as butter, but most of the portions of the trail have cracks and bumps, which are hard to avoid. And every bump lately has also come with a loud Ka-KLUNK! The sound was curious at first, causing me to wonder about it, but also to completely ignore it. But on my ride on Thursday, the sound was really bugging me.
The sound sometimes sounded like it came from the front fork, other times it was the back of the bike. But it seemed to echo through the carbon fiber frame of my bike. I tried coasting over bumps – Ka-KLUNK! I tried riding faster over bumps – Ka-KLUNK! I removed my water bottle – Ka-KLUNK! I checked and tightened all my screws – Ka-KLUNK! I removed the top tube bag which contains a bunch of stuff – Ka-KLUNK! One last thing to check was the saddle bag, which includes my flat repair tools – BINGO! No more Ka-KLUNK! It was a little surprising because it was tucked very tightly under the saddle and packed so full of junk that nothing loose could have been moving around. I added a piece of foam between the bag and saddle for now and have been riding Ka-KLUNK-free.
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I had gotten a couple of flats while riding on the tarred and chipped roads we have around here, and the inspection of my rear tire showed considerable wear on it. Little pointy rocks on the road and on the crushed limestone paths were easily causing small cuts and piercing my tube. I ended up buying a new tire to replace it. Replacing the tire was not easy. I got the old tire off easily enough, but the new tire was not going on at all. My son was called in to assist and we both struggled to get this tire on the wheel. We were eventually able to muscle it on, but it left me thinking about how hard it would be to fix a flat while out riding by myself.
I was scrolling through Reddit and saw a post on r/bikewrench from a guy who was having the same issue – couldn’t get the tire on the wheel. One guy responded that he could get it on in about 30 seconds. Others chimed in with the same advice the 30-second guy had and I was embarrassed to admit I had not heard of these instructions before. I bought a new matching tire for the front wheel and it went on much easier, and without having to call for assistance.
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One of the reasons to replace the front tire to match the back was to avoid looking silly, but also because I am doing my first triathlon in 3 years next weekend! Yes, I’m racing a gravel/off-road triathlon next Saturday and the tires I have added to the bike should make for good traction at this course. It’s a crushed limestone path with lots of turns, so hopefully I won’t have any problems negotiating those turns.
I found myself looking at the participant’s list, hoping to see if I knew any other locals racing, but couldn’t resist taking a peek at what the competition looked like in the M60-64 age group. There was one guy I found who had a very similar finish time to me and I figured he was my main competition. I searched his name and found that he’s a triathlon coach. Great. Well, I’m still going to give it a good effort and try to be competitive, despite trying to ease back into it after having hamstring injuries earlier this year. While I was on vacation, I was able to ride 10 miles in about 35 minutes and run 3 miles in about 25, so I’m not too far from my race pace effort.
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Speaking of coming back from injuries, I have been doing much better. After my above-mentioned 25-mile bike ride on Thursday, I followed it up with a 9-mile run on Friday. I fully expected to be sore and have to run a little slower on a rather warm and humid day. But I was surprised to be running very well and pushed a good effort through 6-7 miles before the heat made me dial it back. I’m glad that the stretching and smart training I have done has made a difference. I just got to keep it up and not do something stupid like racing.
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There’s a new Ironman 70.3 in Rockford, Illinois next year and of course, I had to sign up for it! Feeling good about riding and running again, and since this race is fairly close to me, I decided that this is would be a good reentry point. It’ll be a fun time!
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I haven’t told the wife yet, but I signed up for the Broken Anvil Backyard Ultra yesterday. The race director said it was filling up and was capped at 100 participants. So I checked and saw that it had 79 runners so far and figured why not sign up? The race falls about 3 weeks out from the Chicago Marathon, so I can use it as my last long training run before then. I really like the backyard format and this race has been fun the past two times I have done it. I got through 50 miles in 2022, and 37 miles in 2023, so I’ll play it by ear and try to have some fun without wrecking myself.
I’d better tell the wife that I signed up. She hates it when she finds out on Facebook. If I don’t break it to her soon, you might hear a Ka-KLUNK! from my skull.
an amazing run 