Believe it or not, I haven't washed Bitchie since last fall. I know, I know--I'm guilty of Bitch abuse. I have wiped her off a litte bit here and there, but no full cleaning until this morning. And because she now sports Nokons, I can no longer just hose my Bitch down--I have to gingerly fondle every nook and cranny with the Bike Wash either lightly sprayed on (which I can do on the brakes and rear derailleur), or wiped on with a splooge towel (well actually a shop towel, but go with me here).
Well, today was the best cleaning I've ever done of Bitchie! I got almost everywhere on her, and I know she appreciated the attention. I think I now know where all of her special spots are. And I'm almost motivated to take her completely apart this fall--does anyone know where I can find a Bike Valet to do this for me???
Anyway, here she is all cleaned up before I put all the accessory crap back on her:
And here's the Hydro Tail with the new Specialized Rib Cage Pros:
Beautiful, huh? Funny thing is I took Bitchie to The Bike Shop Saturday afternoon to get these put on and a few other things, but the dude put both the X-lab straps on the same cage, which is not what I wanted, but I didn't realize it until I got home. I coped for Sunday's ride, but then I figured I'd just move them around. Nope. I needed to buy an 8mm wrench to hold the lock nuts in place to screw properly. Then I realized that the longer cage bolts required for the X-lab straps would not fit end-to-end inside the Hydro Tail properly, and I'd need slightly shorter ones (imagine that--needing a shorter screw). So last night before massage school, I went to the local Trek store, and headed to the Service area to get some different ones. Turns out one of the wrenches is a very young guy who had just done his very first triathlon, only the swim was cancelled and it was a duathlon! He asked me how many triathlons I've done, and I told him I don't know exactly...but 12 this year already! He and the other wrench got all googly-eyed at this, and I told them to track down my blog.
So before I started the foreplay...er...cleaning this morning, I undid the cages and switched to the new bolts, and everything is all good now.
Here are Bitchie's lubricants. She gets a little dry from time to time since I ride her pretty hard:
And finally, here she is with all her accessory crap on (and her lubricants):
Now that she's all sparkly and all, I almost don't want to ride her. Nah--you know me--I'm going to go ride her like the little Bitch she is soon enough. And if we have good weather on Sunday and it's not too windy, I'm going to put on the disk and front Cane Creek and we'll go stylin' as Ultra Bitch and Crackhead!
She's getting there. I still need to mount a carbon cage on the seat tube (I need to consult with my LBSG first to ensure I'm using the right hardware & torque), and I also need to get different cages for the Hydro Tail. Other than that, Bitch is all set to go! Isn't she beautiful with the Nokons?
She got her self some new bar-end shifters.
Isn't that Hydro Tail pretty? I just ordered the BLUE Rib Cage Pros. They will look awesome back there!
After spending a couple hours at the bike shop this evening, I arrived home to find this hanging on my mailbox:
I know who left it, and THANKS, MIKE! (I know many Mikes). Notice the new blau Nokon bracelet below:
It's care of Bitchie, who is all sexed up and ready for me to ride her hard this weekend. I'll get pics of her once I fondle...er...clean her up a little bit. I tell you, she's absolutely fucking gorgeous! She got some other carbon bling, but that will need to wait until tomorrow.
The Triple T race report is in progress...it's slow going...so much to write about...don't expect it until next week!
Oh and in checking the number of triathlons I've done in a given year, I have already surpassed my heaviest year of racing--the tally so far for 2008 is 4 sprints, 6 Olympics and 3 1/2 Ironmans! Holy crap! I have 1 more sprint and 2 Ironmans planned, so I guess I'm kickin' it again this year!
5:40AM Drive to the Y to run. Towel Nazi is not at the front desk, so I'm able to score 2 towels so I can actually dry off after I shower. 5:50AM I'm on the treadmill. I brought a can of Coke with me and a bottle of Gatorade. My stomach isn't right from the coffee, and I'm thinking it's going to be mostly Coke. Suprisingly, my legs do not feel too bad, although the Zone 1 shit feels waaaaay too slow. There are an awful lot of smiley, morning workout people at the Y. 25% of them recognize me. 6:20AM Time to start Zone 2. It still feels slow, but not that bad. I'm able to take sips of Gatorade now, although periodically I want to gag and puke anyway. 6:50AM 1 hour down, I get to--you guessed it--take yet another shit. Ah, the pleasures of running, training hard, and a high metabolism. I use the opportunity to change the CD in my CD player (still no iPod, don't start on me) while I am in the can. 6:55AM Back on the treadmill, and a friend, Jamie, comes in. One of the first entrants into the Hottie Brigade. I love talking to him, it's like we both get motor mouth when we see one another. One of these days I hope I get to ride with him again. 7:55AM I'm done! It was a good idea to run on the treadmill today. My legs had been pretty beat up from last week, and they finally feel "normal" again. Well, as normal as you feel after running 2 hours. 8:15AM I'm back home, ass in chair, working, sucking down Endurox R4. Ready to face the leftover crises from yesterday, but I am easing into things, and after prioritizing, think it won't be such a hectic day after all. 10:15 One long call, and now I'm getting hungry. Colleague wants to chat post-team call, which is good, but I am fucking starving, so I'm on the speaker phone making myself breakfast or whatever it is. 4 eggs, 3 pieces of Canadian bacon chopped, scrambled and cooked in butter, English muffin also buttered. Man, I love eggs. I wolf this down and start to feel better. 12:00PM I'm fucking tired. I want a nap, but there's no time for that. Must keep working. 12:30PM Guy arrives to go over with me what yard work I'd like him to do. First time I'm paying someone to do some of it for me--I have just run out of time for some reason this year, and I want it finished before June rolls around! Stuff like trim all the shrubs, weeding, etc. 1:00PM Back into work crisis mode, but I seem to have a handle on things. Start wondering how I am going to make it through the day without a nap. Eat some bananas, which helps temporarily. 4:00PM Work is under control; maybe I can finish up my lifting from yesterday, so I do (16 minutes is all), but my muscles are screaming at me while I do it (bis, tris, chest), and yet I do a little posing in a mirror and am happy about how I look. 5:15PM I call it a day, workwise, and get ready to go to The Bike Shop. Load Bitch into car first, blanket on top, and LGL on top of her. My bikes are having sex back there. I'm concerned that the metals (magnesium and boron carbide) will commingle and birth some mutant bike back there. 5:40PM I'm at The Bike Shop. So what am I having done? Well...Bitch is getting BLUE (or as they call it, blau) Nokon cables! Also, I'm ditching the X-LAB and getting a carbon behind-the-seat-bottle holder. I needed to observe LGL being lubricated one more time so I know how to do it--she has special lubrication needs due to the way her Nokon's had to be installed. I also had them switch the cassette on the back (I can do it myself, but what the hell) since I'm riding in Wisconsin on Saturday. I also picked up my new Louis Garneau Rocket Helmet (I got the blue and white one, of course):
It's fucking gorgeous, and looks good with Bitchie. I also had shims put into the left shoe of both LGL's and Bitch's shoes, since my left foot is different than my right and my left leg has a functional shortness compared to my right. I also picked out new carbon cages (curiously enough, Profile Karbon Kages) for Bitchie once she has carbon on her butt and on the seat tube. She is going to look awesome once they are done with her! I also looked at (first time you are hearing about it) fixies online, and have decided on this one:
I'm going to put cowhorn bars on it with sweet bar tape, Cane Creek brake levers, and no, I don't have a name for it (I think it's a HIM) yet. 8:30PM I get home (yes, my bike shop trips are legendary lately), throw pasta into the microwave, load the coffee pot, crack a beer, start making a list of crap I need to do on Friday, wolf down the food, decide I better eat more, think about TV, scrap that idea, grab a package of crackers and read yesterday's newspaper in bed for about 15 minutes, decide I better pass out since I have to be done swimming by 7:45AM (and I'm doing the 4,000 yard workout again).
Phew. Now it's Friday... 2:45AM I wake up. At first I'm not sure whether it's stress, I'm hungry, or I have to pee. Lay there for awhile, and guess what? I have to take a shit AND I'M HUNGRY. Take care of the first item, then make a sandwich, eat it while reading a little bit more of the newspaper, and then try and go back to sleep. No such luck, really, but laying down is still a good thing. 3:55AM I look at the clock and decide, close enough. I'm awake. Turn on the coffee pot, put on a record (I'm loving the new turntable, and I still LOVE Ska--like I need to listen to really fast, crazy music, you know). Grab a Power Bar and get rolling. Think about what I have to do today--swim 4,000 yards, work on major crisis at work, maybe run a little bit, go grocery shopping later (and booze sampling), stretch, fix bottles for Saturday's festival (Patti and I are riding the ENTIRE IMWI course and then running--I wonder if I can pull it off), begin packing for Saturday, set the coffee pot, OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG.
And yet, despite all this craziness, I am loving life!
