Bike, Flat, Jog, Bike

You can tell I'm at the start of my exercise campaign because after another night of wakeful baby syndrome I still felt compelled to strap the bike on the back of my car for a ride this morning. All excited that I had brought my bike to work I set off for a ride on the D&R canal. On my way there I came up behind two young ladies jogging along and had to pass to the left of the path. Unfortunately the small cluster of weeds that I was going to run through was actually a small stump. I nearly flew over the bars and onto the trail in front of them. Fortunately I stayed on board and with a bruised ego I pedaled off to the sound of their giggling. I got to the canal and started paying attention to my HR with the goal of keeping it around 145-150. No sooner did I get into my zone when something didn't feel quite right. My front tire was flat as a pancake. D'OH!!! It's a pinch flat from hitting that damn stump. I'm about a mile and a half from the university without a patch kit or a pump, but at a crossing of a road that I know (Harrison). So I took off my tire, ditched the bike in the bushes and jogged the half mile to the Sunoco station where I usually get gas. Still without a patch I pull a McGyver and used electrical tape to patch the two small holes and pump up the tire and pray that it holds long enough to get me back. Fortunately it maintained its pressure well enough to get me back to the gym and then some ... actually it was still pretty firm, so keep that in mind if you are in a pinch for a flat repair. I got a workout, but it wasn't the one that I had planned. C'est la vie.