I had the worst ride ever yesterday, but I wasn't too upset about it. Probably because it was my fault for not changing my tires. I felt guilty more than anything, because I had to burden people who were on the group ride with fixing a flat and waiting for me to catch up.

Sequence of events:

I've been using some very thin Maxxis race tires that were on the Bontrager Race Lites. They aren't meant for everyday riding, but since I hate changing tubes and tires out, I decided to use them for everyday riding... for six weeks. My luck ran out on Saturday. As the group was rolling off the ride start, my back tire went flat. I took it into the shop, which wasn't officially open, but one of the mechanics was there. There was a hole in the tire. He changed the tube and put super glue in the tire. I rode off happy and thankful, but forgot my sunglasses in the shop. Rode back, shop was locked, he unlocked it for me (at his inconvenience). Got sunglasses, took off again. By this time the group probably has 20 minutes on me. Quickly time-trialed and rode fast down the hills trying to gain some ground. I caught up with them at the gas station about 14 miles later.

Riding that fast without a warm-up causes a lactic acid build-up in the muscles. My legs were already tired and we had 50 miles to go.

I was lolly-gagging off the back, recovering and chatting with some other cyclists. The group picked up the pace rapidly, and myself being stubborn and thus unwilling to believe that the group was going to ride at race pace instead of what the group leader proposed, "a slow tempo pace", I got dropped. By the time I finally realized that they weren't kidding, it was too late for me to catch up.

A girl on my racing team called my cell to find out where I was and told me where to turn. I caught up with the group at the next gas station stop. More inconveniencing of others.

As we rolled out, a few miles later, I hit a bump and my back tire went flat again. We patched up the tire and put in a new tube as the group waited, and were on our way again. More inconveniencing of others.

About fifteen miles from home, fifty miles down, my back tire goes flat again. This time, I'm out of CO2 and tubes and sick of having flats. Three in one day. I tell the group to head on and called a friend to come pick me up at the gas station near where I flatted. More inconveniencing of others.

Back at the shop, I settled up on some new tubes and C02, then received a justifiable lecture on not riding on race tires.

I went home and after much fiddling and annoyance, changed out both tires with new ones. I'm very stubborn. That rear tire gave me five flats before I had the motivation to change it out.

But really, I should think about the fact that my laziness causes much inconvenience to others, and avoid such behavior in the future.