If I work out late at night, it takes me hours to fall asleep. The physiological reasons for this are beyond my comprehension, but suffice to say that if I work out, say from 9-10pm (like I did tonight), than I'm up until at least midnight.
So, what better things to do when all is quiet in the house than to write a blog post? I'm not really much for watching TV, anyway... most network reality crap bores me to death. Since when did we become such a voyueristic society? Maybe we always have been, I don't know. Anyway, I digress.
Today, I dropped my new/not-new Cervelo PCCarbon frame off to get built up. The story in it is that the frame is new to me, but it is a 2007 model frame. If you watched Chrissie Wellington smoke the field in the 2007 IM world champs in Kona, the red/white bike she was on, that's the same bike I'm talking about. Well, not the SAME bike, the same model. I came by it through some luck and a good friend... I owe him some beers. The catch was that the bike had been in an accident and the end of the aero bars smacked the top tube hard and cracked the frame, leaving a small dime-sized hole. So, I had to have that fixed.
Here is a pic of the frame as it was when I received it and a detail of the top tube fracture.
So, the frame went off to Calfee Design in early Dec and for a reasonable fee, they fixed it up good as new. It arrived earlier this week.
Sorry for the tease, but I don't have any pics of the repaired frame... but I will post them when I get the bike back on Friday.
All in all, for a small outlay of cash and some well-rewarded patience, I now have a new, SWEET frame.
I'm stoked on this for a couple reasons. 1) With all due respect to the fine bike makers at Quintana Roo, the P2C is simply a much more aero, lighter, faster, more comfortable bike than my old Tequilo. Well, the faster part depends on me, but more aero, lighter and more comfortable for sure. And 2) as I've progressed as an athlete, I've started to ride steeper and steeper. And I'm at the limit of what my 55cm Tequilo frame will accomodate. When I'm really hammering, I am on the very tip of my saddle and way out on top of my bar extensions. The new bike is a 58 and with the saddle in the front seatpost position, it will allow me to ride a couple degrees steeper and give me a little more length to stretch out. It should also be more stable at speed since so much of my weight won't on the front wheel.
Once I get fit on the new bike on Friday, I will post before and after pics for comparison.
The timing is perfect for the new ride. This weekend, my coach and our group is doing our first race simulation ride on the California 70.3 course. 41 miles, with 31 miles at race effort and a 4 mile transition run. It's a perfect opportunity to get on the new bike, test it out a bit. It's also my first real chance get a sense of where my fitness is after the last couple months of hard training. I can't wait.