Boy did I not want to get out of bed this morning. I've been going to bed around midnight and getting up at 6:15a isn't what the doctor ordered. Surprisingly though I was able to get on the road at 6:30a. I usually drag around the apartment trying to wake up. It makes sense that my statistics this morning were the slowest since I started keeping track.

I did have some very lucky news today around lunchtime. I was about to get out the broken key and the pin to go and use a vice in the shop when what fell out of my saddlebag but the original pin! I have no idea how I missed seeing it yesterday after going through all the stuff in such great detail, but there it was. I was easily able to take off my wheels.

That said, we weren't able to get to Performance Bikes to look at replacement wheels because Ken was out today and Eric and Pat (holding serve) both rode in. We were stuck eating in the Orbiteria. Getting my wheels off the bike was solace enough. What I did notice was that the bearigs in my front hub seem to also be grinding. I'm not sure what might have cause my sealed bearings to fail like this, but I'm really hopeful that a new wheelset will add quite a bit of speed. I have noticed a few comments on bulletin boards or review websites about the Sirrus' hubs failing. I'm hoping to write a bit about my machine in an upcoming post.



After lunch I called Georgetown bike store about a new wheelset. They told me it would be about $100 per wheel. I decided to check out Bike Nashbar and a few other online retailers instead. Since I'm not looking to break the bank on this bike with a set of spectacular rims, I went with the Mavic CXP22 / Shimano 2200 Road Wheelset. I was able to order the set and some new brake pads and get it shipped to me by Friday for cheaper than one wheel would have been at a retail store. The only downside is that I continue to ride on crunchy bearings. The new wheels can't come soon enough.

I kept the pace solid but relaxed on the way home today. I've been riding sans iPod ever since I got these wonderful dri-fit shirts. I'll most likely be back to my podcasting ways shortly, but riding without a backpack is quite nice. I arrive dry and not all that disgusting or smelly. I did leave late today at around 5:45p and there were a lot of folks out on the trail. I'm continually frustrated that it seems all the competitive riders are headed in the opposite direction. One of these days I'm going to have to ask them if there's a club to join.

I guess tomorrow I'll have to get around to explaining what's happening this weekend . . .

Dist / Time / Avg / Max / Odo
37.51 / 1.24.07 / 26.7 / 46.4 / 976.8
38.01 / 1.17.35 / 29.4 / 49.3 / 1014.9