high maintenance

Last night I diligently went to bed at 11 and did not participate in any activities whatso-ever involving alcohol. I stayed home by myself and made a delicious chicken salad dinner and watched the tour. Ahhh it felt good to do nothing. I'm not sure if it's these hellish-crazy weeks working or if it's because I recently upped my training. Either way I wanted to be ready for my RIDE this am.

So much for that! I woke up early and headed a half hour outside the city to meet my friend kim for a ride or should I say beating. (because that is probably what it would have turned in to :). 5 minutes into the ride Kim and I heard a cracking noise and some pieces of plastic hitting the pavement.......


There goes my speedplay pedal......................

I turned around instantly to survey the wreckage as angry runners and mountain bikers haphazardly maneuvered around me. I found most of the pieces although a screw and plate from the one side were still missing.

In desperation, I tried to manually insert the screw for a quick fix. No love. One screw definitely was not going to hold. Grrr....

I think Kim and I jinxed ourselves before we even got started. Her chain was a little rusted from not wiping it off after the last ride and we both came to the consensus that neither one of us were that good with the "bike mechanic" role. My pedal falling off in pieces confirmed our previous hypothesis.

So much for my morning ride! Luckily I made it back to my apartment by 9 and headed out for a long, hilly run. I did 45 minutes on pavement and with 6 rather larger hills around Schenley Park. I felt pretty good afterward considering this was my first run that long on pavement. I'm trying to monitor the surfaces I run on until I'm in full force or my pelvis is in full force I guess.

After getting cleaned up, I anxiously headed to the nearest bike shops to see if I could get the pink hotness fixed for tomorrow. The first place I went to in Squirrel Hill was BikeTek. The owner was kinda off an a** and blew me off saying, "oh you need to get order a kit from the company". Stunned at his rude attitude, I rushed out the door and headed a block up to the next bike shop: Probikes.

Luckily I was helped right away at my next stop, BUT only to receive the news that the kits don't have all the pieces I'm missing . I pretty much needed BRAND NEW PEDALS. The first question, I asked of course was if they carried pink. The poor sales guy disappointingly said, " no we only have blue,".......and I headed for the door. Blue just won't work on the pink hotness. I will order replacements tonight.

So much for that! Bikes are SO high maintenance! Anytime anything breaks whether it's cleats, pedals, or whatever it's like you have to a whole new thing. AND don't forget to buy the specific tool for the one screw that goes with it.

Has this happened to anyone else? My husband's Scott's Speedplays broke last year the same exact way. I guess I just need to be better at tightening these things. Lesson learned. Regardless, bikes are still high maintenance and a pain sometimes!