Out of Respect
b.O.b now has the new crankset and it's soooooooo smooth. Getting the existing bottom bracket off proved to be a chore. I ended up taking a hammer and chisel to the thing. Not the brightest idea as my index finger got between the hammer and the chain ring and then proceeded to bleed all over everything for about 30 minutes. The good news is when I went over to the cycling guru's house for a tool, he asked me if I wanted an extra stem he had in the tool drawer. Just a $60 Bontrager Race 4130 stem. Are you kidding me? After a couple hours securing everything, finding the right length of chain and rewrapping the tape on the bars, I took it out for a spin. Sweet as honey and 99.9 percent pure honey at that.
I rode b.O.b. into work this morning and it was awesome! The hills weren't so tough, as I changed the chain ring from a 48T to a 42T. It was a very comfortable ride. The new stem actually put me two inches forward which needed to happen to fit properly to the bike.
So out of respect to the bikes, a.k.a. PSB (Pawn Shop Bike) and b.O.b. (Bucket O' Bolts), they will now be called Salsa Verde and Salsa Roja. There are too many good components on the bikes now to call them by crappy names or acronyms. I passed a roughly 45-year-old guy wearing an Oakland Raiders cap near the Whole Foods Market on the way in and he recognized what a great bike was before him. "Sweet Ride" is what he said. Ya Man, 99.9 percent pure honey! Salsa Roja is one bad-ass beater bike.
Labels: b.O.b., beater bike, commute, cycling, PSB
Commuting with b.O.b.
Yesterday's commute on b.O.b. went better than expected. No near misses with any cagers and the bike held up, sort of. A problem with the bracket and the chain threw the chain going up a hill, which then caused my knee to come down on the chain ring. There was a grinding coming from the bottom bracket during the whole ride home. Last week when a similar sound was heard from in that same area of the bike, it turned out to be a stripped bearing. No worries, as the bottom bracket and the crankset are getting replaced this weekend. Synchronicity is so great! Just so happens that I bought a used-Bontrager bottom bracket and crankset yesterday for $10 from coworker "Tool Time" who just happens to be a cycling enthusiast and amateur wrench. b.O.b. is getting expensive. Let's see, with the $10 for the crankset and bracket, single-speed b.O.b. is now worth about $44. heh heh :)
The other news is that I finally, finally got over to the new Jack and Adam's Bicycles shop yesterday. They had a good location before but this one is better. At least it has easier access. If you haven't been over there, you have to stop by. These guys really live and breath this stuff. Jack worked on Desiree Ficker's bike for Kona, in which she came in second. Kona, as in Ironman World championship Kona.
Labels: b.O.b., Bontrager, Ficker, Jack and Adam's, Tool Time
Two Tanks, Both Empty
The last couple of months have been about lifting and cycling. A couple of runs, one of which was a half marathon and the legs, although not at all back in form, felt ok. So it was with great surprise that I ran to the Bowie High School track to put in a few easy miles and the legs felt like crap. Not just crap but
holy $h!t what's going on?, kind of crap. Not cramps, not pain but each of them felt like they weighed 250 pounds a piece. Lifting felt awkward. Landing felt awkward. I had just run a half the week before. I had just run seven miles yesterday and everything was fine. The only thing I can think of was my nutrition was off right after the seven mile run. Like my legs said no to what I fed them after the run. It was 2 scoops of Gatorade and a pastromi sandwich on rye. What the hell?
When I go through a workout, it seems like there are two gas tanks. Just when I feel I'm drained and can't go any further, I'll push for a few more minutes and then the reserve tank kicks in and I have renewed energy. The run at the track had both tanks empty. That's only happened one other time and just so happened it was about the same time last year. It may not be food related at all but rather more sinus infection as I'm congested with cedar fever.
Iron Wil talks about the first ten minutes of anything sucks. Seen as she and the upper midwest are at 12 degrees right now, I'd say the next ten hours of anything would suck. The run at the track sucked for the first ten minutes and then the next. I now have a rule that if the second ten minutes suck, then I'm moving on to another type of training. That's the great thing about triathlon, if runing sucks, you still have swimming and cycling. It ended up that cycling was the winner. I got on the bike and everything felt fine.
I rode b.O.b. and he only threw the chain once. Not bad. Today's the last of the 70° days for this week but it's nice to get one in February every now and then.
Tonite starts another coaching session with Runtex and Seton. We have 26 people signed up so it should be a little more work than last time. We're getting these folks ready to run their first 5K or 10K race, April 28.
Labels: b.O.b., Iron Wil, running, Runtex
