Ping! Clatter! Clatter!

It's not long until the London triathlon and I have been far too slack recently. Both training and blogging. Work has been very busy, I have been on courses off and on for the last couple of weeks. So I have been late getting home most nights. A couple of people have also left work, one to go to a company I used to work for and another is staying with the company but moving to the Sydney office. Of course that means two leaving parties. Last nights was fairly sedate though I did stay until the free beer ran out (old habits die hard). However at the party last week I ended up drinking far too much. No embarrassing stories to tell but I felt a bit worse for wear the next day.

While all this has been going on I have been doing some training and of course keeping up with the cycling and running to work. But I have not been doing enough. The courses have also stopped me going for my lunchtime swims. I don't think I have swum for about three weeks and can you guess what part of the London triathlon I am worried about? Yes, the swim of course.

In an effort to get my training back on track I decided to go for a ride tonight after work. As I got off the train the heavens opened and it absolutely poured down. I waited under cover until it slowed to a gentle drizzle then I set off. Once I got home I dropped off my bag and set off on my normal route with a plan to do a few laps. Part way round the first lap there was a sudden ping sound followed by a lot of clattering.

Something was obviously wrong so I stopped and jumped off the bike to check it out. It was a broken spoke snapped off right at the hub. This was a new experience for me and the immediate problem was how the hell was I going to get home? I couldn't carry on with the spoke flapping about and I couldn't see anyway to remove it. In the end I had to bend the broken spoke around one of its neighbours then I cycled home. I think this is going to require a trip to the bike shop tomorrow. replacing a spoke is not a huge job I'm sure, but with my mechanical aptitude it is so much easier to just take it to the shop.