…otherwise known as “andrea has first world problems”

Fool’s Gold has left me with two lingering things- The first one is a possible crack in my frame. I was in the process of tearing my bike down to wash the abrasive/destructive Georgia mountain dirt out of it, when I found this:

It looks as if the top layer of carbon under the paint/clearcoat is trying to escape, and the headbadge is separating from that side (the bond is excellent the rest of the way around). My best guess is that the headtube lug is having issues under there. Needless to say, Niner sent me a UPS label right after I called them, and the frame is on its was to Ft. Collins, CO for evaluation. Any other time of the year, this wouldn’t really be an issue. However, I’ll be leaving for the Shenandoah 100 in a week (final race of the NUE season), and I don’t plan on running gears. Fuck.

The prospect of tearing the geared bike down to run singlespeed is looming over my head. Because of the internal cable routing, it’s not a simple “derailleur removal & go” process. It’s more of a “run cable guides through my frame and hope they stay in place while I’m racing so it doesn’t take 2 hours to re-cable it once I’m done” type process. I don’t really have the time or motivation for any of it.

The other lingering malady from racing 100 miles is just being tired. I’m exhausted.  I could be better, except that I’m on my feet fixing bikes and being a housewife from 5:30am until I sit down for dinner at around 8:30pm. I’ve studied exercise physiology enough to know that the fact that I have such a job and responsibilities is making me slower.

So, yes. I’m lucky to be able to complain about this stuff, but that doesn’t make them any less frustrating to me.

P.S. I said this in the comments, but it’s worth adding here- Ryan puts in his fair share of work/support/etc. I couldn’t even begin to try racing/training like I do if it weren’t for him.