Little Red

My Canondale road bike, Little Red, has briefly come out of retirement. This morning I brought Mrs. Z  to Fast Splits, where she will get a quick little tune-up from Brian, the mechanic there, and then shipped off to Hawaii by TriBike. It's a long trip. I'm hoping she makes friends with all the other bikes.

But, in her absence, enter Little Red.

 

Here she is in 2007 at Timberman, her first and only 70.3. Soon after she was replaced, coldly, by the super slick, Mrs. Z.

Little Red has been spending time in the basement lately. When I brought her up I had to clean her thoroughly. She had become a tad moldy and cobwebby, I'm afraid. After a complete bath and a little lubing, however, she looks quite snappy and rides quite well. We all ride better after a bath and lube, eh?

I removed Little Red's aerobars because I think they cause me to be even less aero than simply being on the drops. I think I might have 70 spacers atop my stem. Not sure.  I admit I'm slightly relieved that I will be unable to measure power output for the next few weeks. My legs are cooked. I just want to rest, man! Luckily for me, I am resting a bit this week. It's funny--before IMLP I was constantly paranoid I wasn't doing enough or working hard enough. Now I'm doing exactly as prescribed, and no more, with no worry. I'm just too freaking tired to worry. End of the season, can you hear me calling your name??

I leave you with a few illegally copied photos of my racing at Pumpkinman. 

I look cut and tanned! You know I'm going to look at these pictures in January and sob, full of self-pity because my tanned cut-ness has turned into pasty flabiness.

And here are a few of my awesome tri friends who raced (and all placed, fyi) Stacy, me, Kelsey, Amy, Erin and Michelle.

For now. Namaste.