New Wheel, Fast Wheels!

I was feeling pretty dejected after my failed display of bike-mechanic skills. With my head hung in shame, I threw out a hail-mary and fired off an email to a local bike-racing club seeing if anyone had a beater-wheel I could borrow or buy off of them for cheap while I searched for an adequate replacement. Like Flutie, my prayers were answered! Art, a veteran wrench wrangler and racer, fired back an email saying that he had just the beater-wheel I was in search of.

Upon arrival, bike and shamefully broken wheel in-tow, I entered his mecca of all things cycling - his basement. Vintage TdF posters and race-numbers adorned the walls, while bikes of all make and model were carefully leaned/hung/resting in every perceivable corner. Did I mention this man has a collection of 50+ jerseys from various teams and events?... Jesus. I have three.

Him: "Let me take a look at that thing."

Him: "Hmmm."

Art then goes and starts leafing through a hanging collection of wheels. He pulls one out and turns back to face me. What the f!? In his hands, still in its original packaging, is a brand new, carbon copy of the exact same wheel that I had busted. WHAT ARE THE CHANCES?! Wooooooooooooowwww!

Him: "Whatta we say... 20 bucks?"

Me: "Yes. Abso-f'ing-lutely YES!!!"

I didn't show up empty handed though. Just for his kindness of offering to help, I delivered to him a tasty beverage from the Goose Island Brewery, seasonally and lovingly named Sofie.

Mmm... the good stuff!

In addition to SAVING THE DAY, Art also gave me a free lesson on what it means to act PRO. It was like having the bike-snob standing right in front of you, insulting you in a humorous and entertaining way that you could do nothing but enjoy. I thought I knew how to change a tired, but I guess I did it like a Donkey. BABY POWDER, PEOPLE - if you don't use it, you ain't PRO! (When you say it, you have to say it with an air of disgust, punctuation and superiority as if the very fact you need to utter the word is a waste on whomever you are using it towards). PRO!!

Because of Art, I will undoubtedly shell out the $20 to officially join the CBRC (Capital Bike-Racing Club) and adorn my soon-to-be first pair of bib-shorts with pride (and a little bit of awkwardness).

* * * * * * * * *

If you've paid any attention to my daily-mile stats (side-bar right), running distance and intensity has been DOWN these past two weeks. I had a hernia scare that was most-likely just a strained groin muscle (never had this before) from an overzealous 7-mile effort a couple of weekends ago. In an effort towards smarter training, perhaps I shouldn't leave it all out there in January. Thus, I dialed back the running, got the groin under control (please, no jokes) and are back at it.

And WOW, what a nice treat!

On Saturday I ventured out for my (not-so) long run of the week - 5 miles. It was finally above 20 degrees outside so I was excited to get out there and do it. I found myself doing 1/2-mile laps on a half brick, half snow/ice-packed trail. I got in a bit of a warm-up with the wife and then set off on my own at about the 0.75 mile mark. When I finished, the watch read 39:30, or a 7:54 min/mile average. That is far and away the fastest I have ever run any distance over a 5k, and you know what?... I could've kept going and taken it out to a 10k and MAJORLY SLAYED my current PR. Of course, we all know training PRs don't count for anything and I also just finished talking about training smarter, so I did the smart thing and cut it short at 5.0 miles.

Victory!!