My bike is in!

My bike is in!  My bike is in!  I’ve been in a bit of a funk for the past couple of weeks.  My ribs continue to ache from my mountain bike crash.  If you’ve never injured your ribs, don’t!  (Wow, three exclamation points in 5 sentences!  Look, there’s another!)  I hadn’t gotten a full night’s sleep in three weeks.  I could only sleep in one position fairly pain free and every time I turned in bed a jolt of pain shot through me startling me awake.  This would happen about 5 to 6 times a night, every night.  Training has been tough.  I still got up early to get on the elliptical trainer but couldn’t really go too hard as every deep breathe would hurt.  I’ve been on the bike a few times but that is an exercise in my ability to withstand pain rather than any real training.  Worst of all, my weight has crept back up a bit.  Needless to say, I needed a pick-me-up.  Well, I got a call from the guys at Banning’s last week that did just that.  After a month and a half wait, my Salsa Chili Con Crosso frame had finally arrived.

Ain’t she purty?  John did an outstanding job of building her up and Banning was able to do a short fit session with me after the club ride on Saturday to get me up and running (or is that spinning?).  If you’re in the Orange County area and looking for an outstanding shop, these guys know their stuff.  With a brand new cross bike, cross season is going to be fun.  Which brings me to this:

It was easy to convince my wife that I needed a second bike when I only had one.  It was a bit more difficult to convince her I needed three when I only had two (but it was a $50 beater chained to a post in Portland so it didn’t take too much selling on my part).  I knew she loved me when she allowed me to buy a fourth when I only had three.  The question: how in the world will I convince her I need a fifth?  Now, I know that both cyclists and non-cyclists alike read this blog.  The cyclists know you can never have too many bikes (which is an indisputable fact).  The non-cyclists ask, why do you need more than one bike anyway?  So let’s address the arguments against having multiple bikes.  First, “you’ve only got one butt, why do you need two bikes?”  Easy to rebut.  These are probably the same people that look at the bicycle saddle and comment on how small it is and refuse to ride with you.  “Surely one of those tiny saddles was never intended to accommodate a whole butt,” they say.  So, the more butt you have, the more bikes you need.  I have a big butt!  Next issue, they are so expensive.  How can you spend more money on a bike than you did on your first car?  I like to use an argument that involves a probable alternative in this case.  I could take up golf.  Let’s see.  A round of golf costs anywhere from $30 to $70 (on the courses I would probably play).  So we’ll average that out to about $50 a round.  Since I ride my bike 3 to 6 days a week I’ll assume that I’d play golf no less than twice a week (a conservative estimate).  Now, take $50 times twice a week times 52 weeks and you come out to about $5,200 ($5,300 on a leap year).  That does not include the clubs, the balls, the beers (I mean, how could you golf sober?  Which is part of my standing argument about why golf is more of a game than a sport, how can it be a sport if you are better at it drunk than sober, but I digress), the wagering, the plaid outfits, the funny hats.  We’ll just round that up to $10,000 (remember, if it’s 5 or more you round up).  You can clearly see that golf is far more expensive than cycling.  Furthermore, I’d ride in a cart instead of walk the course so the drastic impact it would have on my health would surely increase the cost of my healthcare and burden society as a whole (see, I’m looking out for everyone here, isn’t that nice?) and decrease my total number of wage-earning years.  Last argument, where are we going to put all of those bikes?  My response, “the garage is mine!  You can have the kitchen, the living room, the bedroom, the bathroom, the closet, the garden, heck, I’d even be willing to give back the little sliver of medicine cabinet I’ve carved out for myself, but the garage?  That is not open for discussion.” 

Saturday's weigh-in = 250

Saturday's Club Ride:  1:56, 31 miles, 60 min. 256 Watts or 2.35 Watts/Kg, 5 min. 415 Watts or 3.81 Watts/Kg, 5 sec. 1152 Watts or 10.58 Watts/Kg

Comments

[Sara]

I am interested in knowing how you have decided the sex of your bike. Do all 5 come with birth certificates?

She's just too pretty to not be a girl. Besides, with a wife, two daughters and a female dog, I wouldn't know what to do with a "guy" around the house.

[Nancy Brown]

I have been following your blog, Justin, mainly to see how your weight loss is going. I am finally beginning to lose a few pounds again after the initial 25# I lost by last summer. It is not easy, no one said it would be, so hang in there and I am pulling for you. I keep thinking how much faster I could be with 25 less pounds to haul around!!! What better way to make my bike lighter!!

Thanks for the encouragement Nancy! I'm hoping to run into you at Cyclocross Nationals in December if you can make it.

[The wife]

You are a brilliant writer, great husband, and dedicated father... and yet I am still drawing the line at 4... I am mean :)