Does anyone else smell Spring in the air?

It brings me back to last summer, when I was first learning how to cycle competitively and bought my first bike and fell in love, twice, for the first time (one with cycling, one with a woman). Both of those loves lasted, but only one is reciprocated today.

I can't wait for the days of warm sunshine and short sleeved jerseys and the awesome tan lines from the spectacular spandex shorts and jersey...Of getting on the bike and just going and going and going with no regard for weather or sunlight (lack thereof, actually), with the wind blowing in your face and the sweat flying off your body, and your quads straining to get up the hill, only to crest it and plummet 30 miles an hour down the other side...For getting up at dark o'clock to get to a race two hours away and set up the transition area in the dark, waiting to get your numbers Sharpie'd onto your arm and leg...

Race season is starting soon, and I can't adequately express how excited I am. Excited doesn't seem like the appropriate word though. I am...Hopeful! I am...Happy! I am...Fired up! I am...Charged! I am...filled with the possibility of new beginnings, anxiously awaiting the progress I want to see throughout the season, proud, nervous, a mite skitterish. But most of all...I am excitedly ecstatic.

And I still don't think thats a true representation of how I'm feeling. But perhaps this just can't be put into words. Suffice it to say...

Welcome home, Spring. Let's do this!

Epic Training Fail

Ok. So. Here's the news.

I am postponing my race to sometime in August/early September.

Why, you ask? Numerous reasons, the first, foremost, and importantest being that I misunderestimated how difficult it would be to train in the middle of winter.

Well, no, I didn't misunderestimate. I started training for a marathon in early February two years ago. But what I didn't realize is that, while it's possible to run in the snow and ice, biking in said conditions is very difficult. Ergo, my cycling has been woefully lacking. Further, you know whats really hard to do in the winter? Open water swims. I need to be able to practice sighting, and swimming in large groups, and getting punched and kicked and various other forms of beating up that occurs in the swim portion. Which I wouldn't have much time to do if I can't get into the water until mid-May (and even THEN the water is frickin' freezing), and my race in mid-June. Plus, I don't have a wetsuit.

So. Fail on my part.

In addition. I went to the specialty bike shop that I get all my equipment from/repairs done at yesterday. I wanted to get a shorter stem for my bike, because I felt far too stretched out and wasn't comfortable AT ALL when I was riding my drops. Lo and behold, the reason I'm uncomfortable is because MY BIKE DOESN'T FIT ME PROPERLY. Thank you, Trek of Brooklyn, for fitting for a bike that is too large for me, and therefore convincing me to spend almost $2,000 on a bike that I now have to sell because IT DOESN'T FIT ME PROPERLY. So, another reason I'm postponing my race - I need to replace my bike with one that fits me properly, lest I spend too many hours and miles training and end up injuring myself (too extended on a bike can lead to knee, hip, back, and/or sciatica problems).

Luckily, I've only put about 60 miles on it (which is evidenced by the computer that I have, complete with odometer), and it's still in brand-spanking new condition. I can probably get about $1,700 for it on craigslist or E-Bay. And then buy the Cervelo that I tried out yesterday at the specialty bike shop that was actually in my size. It felt pretty damn good.

Anyone interested in a bike?

So that's that. I'm kind of disappointed, but I'm sure it's for the best. It'll give me some more time to get open water swims and long rides in with my tri club, and more options for practice races.