perspective...

yesterday was long bike day - 80 miles - couldn't drag myself out of bed to swim at 6:30 first, but I figured I could ride from 7-noon - got a flat tire 5 miles into the ride at the top of a long hill - I couldn't get any pressure on my first spare tube, and my second spare tube had a hole in it! I had not extra patches since I had just rejigged all of my support equipment that morning, so I called Sena to pick me up. A fellow rider, up from Wilimington stopped to talk - nice guy. Itturns out the head on my pump was loose and simply tightening it would have allowed me to fill the first tube (so I learned something new), but then I would have had to ride 75 miles with no spares, which wouldn't have been a good plan anyway.

So, I got home, ate a bagle, grabbed 2 new tubes and patches, replaced my front tire (I noticed it was in pretty bad shape and I had a new one in the garage) and finally got on the road at 9:00. If I weren't in Ironman training mode, I'm sure I would have just called it a day, but I really need to build this long distance base - starting now!

I get home around 1:30 and I learn a good friend of my younger daughter Rachel has died a tragic death Mexico after falling 1000 feet into an abandon mine shaft. Totally blows me away. 16 years old - very nice young lad - talented. http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20070724_Boy_was_on_humanitarian_trip_to_Mexico_when_he_fell_in_mine.htmlWe just need to be there for Rachel. Her boyfriend Alex is helping her keep her mind off of it - they stayed up late last night watching movies.

So, I got up this morning and ran my 11 miles - keeping all this training stuff in perspective is really important - I have to stay in the moment and enjoy what I have in life - especially my family and friends, because it doesn't last forever.