Yesterday was pretty boss. I kicked things off with the Trinity Group ride. One of Ryan’s Marx & Bensdorf teammates was getting married in NOLA, so a lot of the M-B guys were out of town (congrats to Will & Kelly- sorry we couldn’t make it!) It gave me a chance to occasionally drive some of the pace of the ride, which resulted in a big split in the group somewhere around the west side of Arlington. Boom.

After the ride, Ryan and I had some delicious Mellow Mushroom pizza, did a little shopping, then came home to relax around the house. I worked a little on my road bike to prep it for Crush & Run next weekend. It also needed a little bottom bracket love to get rid of an obnoxious creak.

Later on that evening, I found out that this guy had won a local 24 hour road ride fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Hospital:

That’s Jim. He rode 308 miles from 6pm Friday until 6pm Saturday. He’s one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, but his sweat is weapons-grade corrosive. I know this because I overhauled his bike on Thursday. Any mechanic worth his/her salt will tell you that when you do major pre-event work on someone’s bike just before they have a major success, it makes you feel warm & fuzzy inside.

You know what else makes you feel warm & fuzzy? Homemade risotto. My first attempt at making the rice dish that Gordon Ramsey has made infamous on Hell’s Kitchen was wildly successful (I used Alton Brown’s recipe from Foodtv.com)

Today was a shake-down ride for the setup I’ll be using for Crush & Run. Fashion conscious individuals beware- it includes a handlebar map holder and MTB pedals. Other than a nagging 15mph wind, it was great. I rode through the woods in Germantown to test out my hardshell tires. Everything seems spot-on.

Then, I came home and saw this awesome article on MTBR: Female Bike Mechanics on the Rise in NYC
I can definitely relate to the part about answering the shop phone and having the caller ask to speak to a mechanic. There’s also a customer who comes in and “secretly” requests that one of the guys works on his bike instead of me. Newsflash, hon… we’re all friends. It’s not a secret that you’re a sexist D-bag. It’s all good, though- 99% of the customers who come through the shop are just happy to get their bike fixed, no matter what the chromosomal makeup of the mechanic.