FLAT!

Thankfully that's not how I feel, but that word can describe my day on Tuesday. It really began on Sunday during an easy spin to prep the legs for a short run. About 30 minutes from home my rear tire went flat. I pulled over, yanked out a nice big hunk of metal from my tire, changed the tube and off I went. Well Tuesday comes around and I find that my front tire is flat! Checking out the tire I see a small staple lodged in there. So the front tire gets changed and I am going to get on my way. About 50 yards from home I hear a slight noise from the rear tire and see that the tube is bursting out of the side. Two seconds later... BOOM, there goes the tire. I roll back to the garage to see what the heck is going on. I change the tire and everything looks good. I double check to make sure the tire is seated properly and I roll out for the second time. Then about 1 mile from home I hear that noise again! I quickly stop and see that the tube is bursting out again! I realized that the bead on the tire is shot and can't hold on the rim. So I deflate the tire to about 20 PSI and gingerly make my way home...again. Since I use a Zipp 303 w/ a PowerTap, I don't want to just throw on another wheel, I want the power data from this ride. I take the tire off an old rim, throw it on the Zipp and hope that I finally have it all straight. After 5 thorough checks I'm off. It took about 30 minutes in total, but I was finally on my way. The good news is that I had a great ride, the bad news is that later that evening I noticed the rear was flat! Another piece of road debris had punctured through my tire! I haven't had a flat tire in about 3 months, now it's 4 flats in 2 days. I am hoping that all of my techincal difficulties are over and everything goes smoothly on Sunday.
I feel ready for race day. My legs are strong, I'm well rested and my mind is in a good spot. A few more good hit outs to keep things sharp and then I head for Louisville on Thursday. That will give me time to acclimate to the heat and humidity. In general I do well in those conditions, so I'm not as worried as some others. The day will give you what it will and you have to do the best you can with what you have at that moment.
Thanks for the support and I'll keep you posted on how it goes!

Train Safe,
AJ