I Thought We Had a Deal With The Squirrels

This week's Monday Project was all about the "bank." Whatever happens when you get out there in your workouts and your training goes directly into the bank and you can use it and draw from it forevermore.

Training in the cold? Bank. Running in the rain? Bank. (And also 100% badass.) It's more than about burning calories. It's about building experiences. It prepares you for any adversities you may face in future training, exercises or on race day.

And boy did I add to my bank this week.

Here's my first bank.  I'm up there on the left with the baby blue bike jersey on. That bike that's upside down is mine.

Before I tell you what I'm doing here, here's a little backstory. 

Over the weekend, I rode with my tri-group. We rode 13 miles and after that, I ran 4. (Lots for the bank!) As I was on the last 1/2 mile of my ride and almost to the car, on top of a bridge, I got a flat. I wasn't sure it was flat, but my tire sounded all funny and I coasted to my car where I discovered it was indeed flat. Good thing I made it to the car! I brought my bike home and changed the tire the night before the ride pictured above.

So during the ride in the picture, I didn't have a spare tube with me because I used it for my previous flat.

I also didn't know how to use my little cartridge thingy that blows air into the tire. But about 3 miles into this ride on Wednesday, I blew another flat (I'm good luck to have on a ride!) So there we were, sidelined as one of the girls who was like somone on a Nascar pit crew worked her magic on my bike (I borrowed a tube and some air from someone.) I found the culprit, a piece of glass in my tire, pulled it out, we got on our bikes and continued on.

About two miles later, we were slowing down near an intersection and a squirrel, as if out of nowhere, comes barreling into my bike.

I feel his fur on my leg, I start screaming, "WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON TODAYYYYY!!!!!" and my eyes are looking up and straight ahead because I'm afraid to look down and see what hath transpired and eventually I sense that the incident is over and I stop and with my eyes closed say, "I don't want to look, tell me what's down there." Because all I can think is that there is squirrel carnage and I'm scared and feel like I'm going to throw up.

That fur on my leg really freaked me out.

The girls tell me he went up and around my back tire, flew out and ran off. Oh thank God. I can't imagine what would have happened to my psyche had he not made it. And also if I had to clean up squirrel carnage. I would have had nightmares.

So I was a little shaken up and grossed out and kept feeling the phantom fur on my leg and thought maybe this ride wasn't for me and that no one was going to want to ride with me again. But we kept on.

Big, big, bank.

In hindsight and on a serious note, thank God I was able to think clearly during squirrel incident and just sort of stop pedaling and coast to a stop, because I could have had a serious crash if I had freaked out even just a little more. Thank God it was also not while we were flying down the trail, but when we were coasting to a stop.

Don't these squirrels look both ways before crossing?

All I can think of is that episode of Seinfeld where George hit the squirrel by accident and thought they had a deal: they see him coming, they move out of the way. Kind of like the pigeons, when he ran through them and trampled them (they were supposed to move, as per "the deal.")

On the way back from that ride, I heard squirrels chirping in the trees above me.

I know they were talking about me.

I could just feel it.

This week I've learned the following lessons:
-How to change a tire
-That I must learn how to use specific tire-changing equipment if I'm to change a tire or at least have someone with me who knows this very valuable information, as in this instance
-How to handle my life if I am hit by a squirrel (it was not the other way around)

We kept on and rode 17 miles that day.

So I can add that to my bank.

How bout you? What did you add this week? Link up with the other Monday Projects here!

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I Thought We Had a Deal With The Squirrels

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2010/02/i-thought-we-had-deal-with-squirrels.html