On Pins and Needles

So here we are, two weeks after placing the order for the new bike.  I still haven't ridden anywhere yet, and still have no idea when the bike will be here.  I've been busy purchasing things in preparation for my first ride, and have been getting my mind right about riding again.  Toni has compared it to being pregnant.  I'm spending so much time thinking about it that by the time the bike actually gets here, I'll be burned out.  Lets hope that's not the case.

Part of my prep work has been getting all the odds and ends that I was use to having when I was riding before.  This meant some long nights reading reviews, and finding the right items to purchase.  Paul's had the vast majority of the things I needed and they were either purchased, or ordered at the time I ordered the bike, but there were other things I needed which they did not carry.

One of the things that I needed right off was going to be new tires.  Why new tires on a new bike you ask?  Well, the S-Works Tarmac is a racing bike and accordingly comes with racing tires.  These are thin, lightweight tires which will last only around 800 miles.  In addition to the short lifespan, they offer little to no puncture resistance which is a negative in my book since I don't have a SAG vehicle with me on my rides.  I was going to need to replace them with a more suitable "training" tire.  Specialized offers several different tires which are very good for all purposes.  However, based on a suggestion from a friend years ago, I started using Continental Grand Prix 4000S tires on my last Tarmac.  These tires were awesome to say it simply.  They would last nearly 4000 miles with my use, I never had a flat using them, and they were actually significantly faster than the racing tires that came on the Tarmac originally.  As my cycling season was coming to a close last year, Continental had released a mark II version of that tire with better protection, and better grip which I was planning on getting when I finished wearing the current tires out.

With the cycling rebirth, it was as good a time as any to go ahead and purchase a set to put on the S-Works.  It originally came with 700x24mm tires as a result of testing done by Specialized.  Apparently, these are more aerodynamic than the normal 23mm tires and offer a bit more comfort.  I looked for that size and found that Continental did not make a 4000S II in that size.  My choices were either a 23mm or 25mm.  I did a lot of research between the two sizes and ultimately came to the conclusion that I was talking only 1mm difference either way from the OE tire.  I opted for what I knew, and went with a 23mm tire which is actually a bit oversized when compared to Specialized rubber, so I figured that I was still going to be at that 24mm size when it came down to it.

In addition to tires, I also purchased some more tools, a tail light, and a K-Edge mount for the Garmin 510 which was ordered.  I had gone through multiple mounting options with my previous Garmin 500 and found that the best option, hands down was the K-Edge which put the computer out in front of the bars, and held the unit on like superglue.  The Garmin kit came with an "Out Front Mount" which was very similar to the K-Edge part, but was made out of plastic instead of CNC machined aluminum like the K-Edge.  The reviews also pointed out that the Garmin piece tended to break the ears on the computer mount which cost $70 to repair.  I knew K-Edge, and liked the product (also matched the chain spotter on the front derailleur on the bike), so I went ahead and bought that as well.  After about a week or so, I had a pile of parts in the office just waiting on a bike.

I mentioned the Garmin, which came in to Paul's after only a week.  I went ahead and picked that up and started to play with it.  Its a neat piece of equipment that records the ride both with GPS information as well as a bunch of biometrics.  It will also allow live tracking which was a must have for me for Toni's sake.  I wanted her to be able to see where I was in real time at any time during a ride.  She could also tell if I was moving since it would show speed, direction, heart rate, cadence, etc on her end.  This was going to be a very important aspect of my cycling.  It also is linked to a website called Garmin Connect which tracks your rides, and other aspects of your personal training.  So that everything is accurate, Garmin asks that you input your height and weight, along with other fitness indicators to make sure that your calorie counts are accurate during a ride.  This was going to be the moment of truth for me.  I hadn't grown, only aged a year, and I could answer most questions without hesitation.  When I was asked for weight, I was scared of the answer.  The last time I weighed in (before the crash) I was at 181, which was a little heavier than I was at my peak training.

I pulled the scale out of the closet, and got on in what was going to become a weekly routine once again.  It was with mixed emotions that I saw an even 200lbs on the dial.  On one hand, I was deeply saddened that I had gained that much weight, and was back to where I was at some point in early 2012.  On the other hand, I guess it could have been much worse since I haven't done much exercising at all since November.  Either way you looked at it, I was 200lbs now, after a low of 174lbs about a year ago.  I was going to have to get that under control.  I'm setting my initial goal at 180lbs which was a really good weight for me overall.  I have my mission, and know that the way to make it happen will be on two wheels, with many miles.  I just need to get that danged bike!  Is it here yet????

For those who are into cycling, you know that the clothes are anything but cheap.  Well, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with all my kits when I quit in November.  I felt that many of them were memorabilia, and worth keeping, and all of them had memories.  Toni convinced me to just box them up and keep them.  I never intended on wearing them again, but she was right, I didn't want to get rid of those memories.  Fortunately for me, I had listened to her.  I unboxed the clothes and sorted through them.  There were some that were just worn out, and some that were too loose on me.  I left them in the box and pulled out the items that fit and still looked good.  One of them was my 2012 Double Down jersey which I don't plan on wearing any time soon.  It was my century jersey, and I plan on wearing it next year while I am training for my participation in the 2015 DD2TB.  It will take a while before I am conditioned to that kind of ride again, but I'm hoping that my first one will be in March.

My bike still isn't here!  UGH!!!!!

I have things ordered, clothes out and back in the closet, Its just a waiting game at this point.  Hang on, there is something else I can do in preparation for the arrival of the bike.  I can create space for it in the garage.  Seems like a simple task, but my garage is pretty full since I have a host of tools for doing maintenance, and lots of detailing supplies for the truck that resides inside.  I was debating on where I wanted to make room and decided that I would use the same corner as I had used before.  This time there would only be one bike instead of two.  I moved everything out of the corner and found other places for the tool boxes and shelves.  It was time to start going through all of the new items and get things organized in the corner.

I placed old door mats on the floor to keep the wheels elevated when parked so they didn't end up sitting in standing water in the winter with the melting snow.  I had a single bike stand at the head, and a mechanic's workstand in the corner.  The toolbox contained all of the tools that I had purchased for the new bike, along with some of the cleaning supplies which I will be using after most rides.  Of course, I also have my original tire pump ready to air up the new Continentals when the bike gets here.  Is it here yet?

Another nice touch that I added was my bit of Specialized paraphernalia which I had saved from before as well.  It went right back up on the wall where it had been.  I also added three pictures from different events which I had hanging in the office for my trainer sessions to keep me motivated.  Every time I went to get the bike for a ride, I would be reminded of riding a century at the Tour to Tanglewood in 2012, climbing Ceasar's Head in 2013, and completing 212.24 miles in the 2013 Double Down to the Beach.  These would keep me motivated to keep adding to the distance and difficulty of my rides...to find that fitness level I had enjoyed a few months ago.

Hey!!!!!   My bike is here!  Oh wait...that's my old one.  Nuts!  As you can see on the wall to the right, I used to collect my dead parts as trophies for the miles ridden.  I had tires, chains, cassette, stem, saddle, etc hanging on the wall.  These all got tossed when I cleared out my cycling corner, and that turned out to be just fine since I was thinking about doing that anyway because I was running out of room and I was spitting out chains every other month or so.  This time,  I opted to do something different with the space.  I still had my old bib numbers from events, as well as a plaque from being a Mission Possible rider in the 2013 Tour to Tanglewood.  These would go on the wall with room for more numbers as I attended more event rides in the future.

Toni is now referring to this corner of the garage as the nursery.  I have been decorating it, and getting everything placed just so with no clear idea when the due date is on the bike.  Speaking of which, is my bike here yet?

Nope.....

Everything has been bought now, I'm just waiting for the bike to put it all together and go out on my first ride.  I'm not sure how long it will be, or how fast it will go.  I don't have a lot of hope for far and fast, but I would like to think that I could still do a strong 25 miles to start with.  That is my goal, and if I'm feeling froggy, I would like to try for 50 miles with a tired finish.  If I can pull that off, I think I will be on the road to a quick recovery of my fitness.  All I can do is speculate at this point on how things will go, and hope that the bike arrives in enough time that I can still put in some serious miles before it gets cold.

Getting Old Sucks!

Its been a while since I've written here.  Actually, its only by a stroke of luck that this journal even still exists.  Why you ask?  Well, even though it appears that my riding was going better than ever at the close of 2013, things have a way of changing quickly.  I was coming off of my eleventh century ride for the year and was starting to taper off into my winter riding routine at the end of October, and coming into the beginning of November.  I was still in incredible shape, and felt great on the bike.  I was actually looking forward to some more time on the trainer as the weather got colder so I could do some more intervals, and build my fitness even more.  Fate it would seem had other plans for me though.

I set out on a 50 mile ride on the morning of November 3rd.  There was nothing out of the ordinary about this ride.  I was going to do my Macy Grove Loop which was a fun little ride that I would do just to get out and hammer the pedals.  It was chilly, but not cold enough to really worry about, and there was a slight breeze in the air.  It was a pretty good day to ride considering the time of year.  Everything went as planned, and I was having a nice and relaxing ride.  When I was coming back through Kernersville, I even met up with another cyclist and we rode together for a few miles and chatted about the past riding season.  Since it was windy, and he wasn't as strong of a rider, I offered to do all the pulling for a while and let him just hang on in the draft.  After a few miles, his route changed from mine and we parted ways.  I was coming into the last 7 or so miles of my route and turned onto Walkertown Guthrie Rd and did the brief descent into the valley and started to climb back up.  I had ridden this route many times and could do it with my eyes closed.

As I was climbing out of the valley, I heard a truck coming up behind me and looked to see what it was.  It was a Uhaul box truck which always makes me nervous since the people driving them are usually only used to a car the size of a Honda.  It started to pass me with plenty of room, but as it passed me, it blocked the wind that had been pushing me to the right.  I started to move over closer to the truck, which I expected, and I was able to correct for.  As the truck continued to pass, he started to merge back over but had not cleared me yet.  Apparently, they had not estimated my 13mph climb very well.  As they came closer, I started to ease off the pedals and hugged the right shoulder of the road.  This was going to be close, and I already had an exit strategy planned if he forced me off the road.  There were no curbs here, so I could just go into the grass and come to a stop if needed.

What I wasn't expecting, was what actually happened.  The truck finally cleared my bike, which was right on the edge of the pavement, which allowed that gusty wind to hit me broadside once again.  I had already turned the wheel to the left getting ready to move back out into the lane when the gust hit me.  I was pushed to the right, with the wheel turning to the left, just as the front wheel was pushed off the road and into the grass.  Without time to compensate to go into the grass, the wheel stuck on the edge of the pavement and I felt the bike slide out from under me.  The next thing that I was aware of was laying on my side still firmly attached to the pedals.  I was laying in the middle of the road!  I quickly unclipped and escaped from under the bike, moving the mess off to the side of the road so I would be safe.

It was time to assess the damage.  The bike looked ok, the shifters were boogered up from hitting the pavement, the seat was scarred, and the bar tape was shredded on the left side, and the aluminum bar was gouged pretty badly from the impact.  I got the chain put back on, and everything appeared to shift fine.  I collected my water bottles and put everything back together on the bike.  Then I started to look at me.  I was bleeding on my left knee, but there were no broken bones that I was aware of.  I had some pretty good road rash on my left leg as well.  My shoes were torn up, but still intact.  After collecting myself, and stifling the tears because I had hurt my bike, I climbed back on and checked my cleats to make sure that they would still clip in to the pedals.  They did...so with a deep breath I went ahead and started back pedaling to finish the ride.

I quickly noticed that my chain was slipping badly, and I was having a hard time making it stop.  I figured that the derailleur had been knocked out of adjustment.  All I knew was that to keep from slipping, I needed to be in second or third gear, and in the little ring up front.  This meant that I was pedalling really fast, and not making much speed, but at least I was able to make it home under my own steam.

The last five miles of that ride took what seemed to be an eternity.  I could see the blood rushing down my leg, my ankle was hurting, and my shoulder was stinging.  My mind was racing.  I had been having the conversation with myself for most of the ride already about where I wanted to go from here.  Did I want to repeat all the training that I had done and do the same events, or did I want to go for something more impressive for 2014?  Did I want to slack off and enjoy the ride for the ride's sake?  I was at a crucial point in my cycling career.  Now I had a new thought rolling through my mind, and it was one that I had never considered before...

The biggest lie that I have ever told my wife Toni in the time that I have known her was that I was safe at work.  I'm a police officer that works call answering in the field.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that this could potentially be a very dangerous job.  She knew it, as did I...but I would always reassure her that I did everything that I could to remain safe and out of harm's way while still doing my job.  I would come home to her every day, that was my promise.

The second biggest lie I ever told her was that I was perfectly safe on my bike, and I had no problem handling traffic.  I would always finish my rides and return to her safely.  That was my promise to her.  Here I was, still bleeding, and limping home on a busted bike getting ready to face her at the door with no way of disguising the fact that I had been lying to her about my safety on a bike.  I started to cry again, not able to hold back the tears.  This time it wasn't for my bike, it wasn't for me, it was for the worry that I was going to put her through.  I would have ridden another 100 miles in my current state if I could have put that off, but I was going to have to face the music eventually.

When I walked into the door to the kitchen, Toni greeted me, and could tell that something wasn't right.  I tried to minimize the incident as much as I could.  I mean, I just had a little road rash on my leg, and a bloody knee.  Well, she was seeing all that I couldn't which started to make things look worse than I wanted to admit.  She immediately saw the hole in my jersey (favorite one dammit) over my left shoulder.  I lifted the sleeve and saw why I had felt the burning.  I had worn a few layers of skin off of the shoulder.  As I took my socks off, I found that there was a hole in the sock as well, which matched up to a really bad place on my ankle.  I hadn't ground the skin completely off, but this was really deep, and really painful.  My socks were soaked with blood from this one, and it was much worse than the knee I had fallen on. I also had some really bad road rash right at the sock level in the front of my leg.  Oh, this was going to feel good putting boots on for work in a couple of days.

Toni was great about the whole thing.  She just helped me to get cleaned up and remove the road grit from my wounds.  I told her about the accident, and still tried to minimize it.  I mean, I just fell off my bike, that was all.  However, I had my answer to the ride's biggest questions at this point...what to do for 2014?  I was done cycling.  That was it, I didn't want to continue and risk Toni finding out that this wasn't my only lie to her.  I didn't want her worrying about me at work like I knew she would.  For her, and her sanity, I was going to quit cycling.  She was supportive of this decision, as she would have been with any other decision I made, but I felt that this was what she wanted me to do anyway.



It took me a little while to figure out what was next, as I am not one to just sit around in my off time.  After a lot of soul searching, I decided to go back to photography, which was my passion before cycling.  The more I started to talk about, the more I wanted to get back into it.  Toni had taken up pastels and I wanted us to be an artistic family, and I wanted to share that common thread with her.  I started to piece together a kit to get started with, and got it all picked out.  The only problem was I was going to need money to afford it.  That was where my cycling gear came into play.  I started to post it up for sale, and eventually sold everything, including the bike as it was after the crash.  The shifting problem turned out to be very simple, and was fixed by reseating the wheels in the dropouts.  Butter smooth again.  I was able to make enough liquid cash that I was able to get back into the photography game once again and set out making pictures by the end of the month.  By December, I was already maintaining a web presence through www.446photo.com which was my gallery as well as journal for my "Treks" as I called them.  It wasn't nearly as extensive as what I had before cycling, but it was enough...or so I thought.

As the months passed, I got my photographic eye back, and started to create really cool images of old cars, barns, landscapes, etc.  I even made the cover of a book by a local author.  Ever since I started photography seriously in 2005, I had wanted to get published.  It was a huge goal of mine for so long, and here we were, just a few weeks into getting back into photography, I had been given that chance.  I wasn't all that exited about it when I made the deal though, and that concerned me.  I told myself that I wasn't going to get excited until I actually saw the book in print with my picture on it.  When that happened, I still didn't get that excited about it.  What in the world was wrong with me?!?!?!?!  This was a goal of mine for so long, and it meant next to nothing to me.  I couldn't explain it, and there was no excuse available to make me understand.

I kept on taking pictures, and working on more and more complex compositions, and I was traveling more and more to get to these places.  For once, I was able to take both Toni and our daughter Sierra with me on these treks (unlike when I would go for a ride).  That made me happy, but I still felt a certain hole in my heart.  Something was missing.  I tried to focus on the photography more and more, but I was finding it hard to keep my attention on it, and found myself forcing treks because its what I should be doing.

In the meantime, there were some things that I was starting to notice about my body.  First of all, within a few weeks of giving up cycling, my acid reflux had returned.  Thankfully, not with the intensity it had before I started cycling (couple times a weeks).  But it was back, and that wasn't a good thing at all.  It only took about 4 months before I had an episode that put me over the sink throwing up in the middle of the night for about 30 minutes.  I remember saying very gruffly going back to bed that this wouldn't be happening if I were still cycling.

I was also noticing that I was no longer comfortable in my uniform at work.  I had shortened my belts while I was cycling, and had extra room in them even then.  Now, I was starting to feel the belt cutting into my waist after a full day. By June, I was finding it hard to buckle my duty belt unless I really pulled the actual belt tight before adding the duty belt.  I refused to go into a bigger size belt because I know that path all too well, and it ended me up at a whopping 238# just a short time before.  I was going to have to control my eating if I was going to avoid gaining weight.

My knees were another point of distress for me.  I have always had terrible knees, the kind that sound like rice krispies walking up stairs.  Before cycling, it was snap, crackle, pop with every step.  After I had been cycling for a while, that all but disappeared.  Now that I wasn't cycling again, it was back, just as bad as before.

Then there was the sleep issue.  I've always been able to sleep any time and anywhere, but without cycling, I seemed to never be able to wake refreshed in the morning.  I was always groggy and lethargic.

Lets face facts, after I gave up cycling, I had a 40th birthday.  I was getting older, and there was no escaping that.  On the other hand, when I was cycling, I went from feeling like I was 40, to feeling like I was 20 again.  The day I stopped, I was in the best shape of my life, and felt young.  In just a half year, I went from that to feeling every bit of my 40, and making excuses for my body yet again.

I had to take a hard look at my lifestyle.  Sure, I was eating reasonably, and hiking a few times a month.  I wasn't obese like I had been (although I was on that track).  I could sit back and accept it, or I could fight it.  I decided to accept it.

Then on a very fateful day while at work, I ran into Mike Beane from the Kernersville Cycling club on a call I was on.  He asked if I had time to talk because he had been wanting to talk with me about something cycling related.  He caught my attention when he referred to me as one of his mentors (never really put myself in that position before).  What he was waiting to talk about was whether or not he should continue cycling.  We discussed his feelings on the issue and I remember saying that I didnt' think that he was ready to give it up, and offered some alternatives that would make it more enjoyable for him.  I compared it to my situation and told him that when I quit; it was the right time for the right reasons.  I honestly believed it, and hadn't really looked back since quitting.

It wasn't until some hours after talking with Mike I started to examine why I had quit, and what I had given up.  I realized that I had given up a lifestyle.  It wasn't a bike that I had given up, it wasn't the adrenaline of the fast descent.  It was who I was deep down....I had given up who I was.  That hit me like a sack of bricks, and it hurt.  It hurt much more than any crash on a bike could ever hurt.

I realized why making the cover of the book wasn't fulfilling for me.  While I will always enjoy photography, being a photographer is not who I am, its what I do.  It was nice to have the recognition for the picture, but there was no inner celebration like when I climbed to the top of a category 1 mountain, or when I made it 212.24 miles in one day to the beach.  Those were celebrations that I could have internally that were independent of what anyone else thought.  It was me surpassing myself, and no camera in the world can give me that kind of satisfaction.



So, what do we do from here?  I had recognized the issue, but had no idea what the solution was going to be.  Unlike so many who want to get into cycling, I wasn't going to be able to do this cheap.  In my two and a half years in the saddle, I learned an awful lot about what works and what doesn't.  I had in mind what my next upgrade was going to be, and it was going to be an investment I couldn't afford, and that pretty much made the thoughts end there.  Well, I still yearned for a chance to ride a bike down the road, but decided I had missed my opportunity.

To add insult to injury, three of my friends from my squad started riding after work.  They would bring their bikes to the station and go out for a 14 mile ride after work a few times a week.  It wouldn't have bothered me except that they knew I was pretty big into cycling at one time and when they had questions they would ask me.  As time progressed, I went from giving advice to actually touching the bikes and making adjustments on them.  That was the last straw.  My hands were remembering what a bike felt like, and the smells were coming back.  I could see in their faces the looks I had grown accustomed to with group rides and it took me right back to the Tuesday evening KCC rides.

I found myself thinking about riding a bike I didn't have more often than taking pictures with a camera I did have.  My world was completely out of balance, and I was starting to get really depressed over my choices back in November.  It was getting to the point where I was letting things slip out at home about riding bikes.  Toni keyed in on it very quickly, and much to my surprise said that she thought I should go back to it.  That was my last bastion of hope for not going full tilt into cycling once again.  With that gone, my only excuse was...."we can't afford it, I'm not spending money like that for a hobby."

Toni knows me better than I give her credit for most of the time, and she knew exactly what was going on.  She saw my need for riding, and knew that I needed this in my life.  What she didn't know was that I had been lying to her about riding, and my job.  It took a long time to get up the nerve to tell her my thoughts on this, but I finally did.  I expected some sort of big reaction, but instead she came back with...."Well duh!  of course your job is dangerous, I know that, and I'm ok with it."  Hmm, so in essence, she was ok with the risks involved with work because it was my chosen career path, and was ok with the risks involved with cycling because I had it in my blood.  OoooooooK.  Now what?

As luck would have it, I had just finished paying my truck off a month or so ago, and had a little bit of extra money that wasn't accounted for yet.  Would this be enough to get back into cycling at the level I wanted to?  I started to look at bikes to see what I was going to be looking at.  Just as before, I started to look at Cannondale, particularly at the CAAD10.  I figured that I wasn't going to get into it as hard core as before and could deal with an aluminum frame as long as the drivetrain was good.  I opted for an Ultegra race model that fit my needs well.  The price was good, and I was going to be able to afford this bike without a problem.  I started to research it, and found that the bottom bracket was a weakness in terms of producing noises, which I actually remember hearing from other Cannondale bikes before on group rides.  I found ways of addressing that problem, but then started to read about how the ultra light aluminum frames are just as prone to failure as a carbon fiber frame.  They also have a fatigue life which the way I ride might actually pose a problem for longevity.  Of course, much of this is based on opinions instead of scientific fact, but it was enough to catch my attention.

I started to look back at my old friend the Specialized Tarmac and found that the prices were about where I remembered them being.  I found an Ultegra equipped model which was similar to what I had ridden before, but I was going to have to do quite a bit of upgrading to get it back to where I had mine.  The next option up, addressed the wheels, and optioned in a set of carbons, and changed the drivetrain out to a SRAM Force 22 group.  This would be perfect and the price was at the top end of what I wanted to spend.

It was time to call Paul's Cycling and see what they had in stock.  Me and my timing!!!!  Apparently this was the close of the model year, and there were no more of that bike available until the 2015's were released.  That meant that I was going to have to wait a while longer, but that was ok because I really wanted this bike.  All of the research I had done said that SRAM was the way to go, and it addressed all the weak points that I had with the Ultegra drivetrain before.  I was sold on SRAM!

Toni decided to take me hostage and we went to Paul's on Friday.  Dale, who I normally deal with, was not at work that day, but I had a chance to talk with Paul and Dennis.  They confirmed that I wasn't able to get the Pro Race Tarmac as a 2014.  I asked for them to pull up the 2015's and the model was still there at the same price....Perfect!!!  I even liked the paint much better than before.  This was going to be sweet.  That is until I started to skim the specs on the bike.  SRAM Force had been replaced with Shimano Ultegra.  That wasn't all that bad because I did like my Ultegra.  However, the more I talked around the shop, the more everyone agreed that SRAM was the better choice overall.  Looking at the offerings, SRAM wasn't available until you moved into the S-Works line of the Tarmac.  For those of you who don't know, this is the professional level bike with the FACT 11R frame, and top of the line everything.  It comes with a top of the line price as well...UGH!!!

Fortunately, I found a 2011 SL3 Tarmac Expert (a year later than what I had) on closeout because it hadn't been sold yet.  The price was about what I had paid for mine, but had been in the shop quite a bit longer so I asked how much lower they could go.  They weren't able to drop the price to where I felt comfortable buying it to upgrade components on.  Back to square one....I could get the new Ultegra model, or step up to the S-Works which was what I had been lusting after in the closing months of my riding before.

We left after three hours without buying anything and no clear decision on what to do next.  I only knew that I would be back the next day to talk with Dale.  In the meantime, I debated on how to pay for whatever I chose.  My only reasonable option was to use in-store credit which I detest doing, and Have only used credit in extreme circumstances before.  Toni convinced me that this was extreme, and I should go ahead and use the credit, especially since my truck was paid off, and I had that monthly payment not spoken for.  She had a good point, and made good sense.  Which bike?????

We came back on Saturday right at opening and started talking the fundamental differences between the two bikes.  For the S-Works, I was getting a better frame, much better groupset, and ceramic bearings in the wheel hubs and derailleurs.  I was drooling at the idea of owning this bike, and really wanted it.  Oh, the Ultegra was a nice bike too.  Toni caught the nuisances of how I was talking about the two bikes and used her persuasive capabilities to convince me to go with what I wanted instead of worrying about upgrading right after buying.  The logic was sound, and I went ahead and applied for credit.

You know you are a cyclist when your buying process for a bike is the same as for a car!!!!

With the credit app done, I was approved for a little over where I was expecting to be for all that I would need to buy...remember, I had sold everything cycling related, and essentially needed to start over.  All I had left was my clothes (which are expensive in their own rights), and water bottles.  everything else I would have to get new.

After another nearly 4 hours, I had a receipt that was about as tall as I was, and a picture of a bike that was still being manufactured overseas.  I came home with three bags of items with several more bags on order.  Its all a waiting game until everything arrives, with the bike being the last one in.  I expect it around the end of the month, or beginning of September.  Then it will be all about how quickly can I get back in shape and start taking control of my body again.