Wheel BLING

I now have a pair of Rolf Carbon TDF 58's on the road bike now. I still need to get a cassette for them but here's an early look of the bling action on the bike. These are the wheels I spoke about in the previous ebay posting. They weigh in at 1310 grams.

Bubba Night Cross

The night cross race had all the bells, whistles, cheering, and jeering one could ask for. Sadly enough that race did pretty much seal the deal for me, at least for this season as to if I really want to race cross. I have tried to find the "fun" or "the race within a within the race" but it just doesn't click with me. In any hobby I'm involved in, it has to be fun for me. Cyclocross not so much for me. Even without having a competitive mindset at ALL it still isn't fun. When I wasn't competitive on the road, I welcomed the challenge of getting stronger and faster. That challenge was fun. I chatted up lastnight about selling my cross frame but I will not make any rash decisions. I will return to spectator status for the remaining races.

I did get the carbon wheels I ordered off ebay. Once I have my camara I'll post some pics of the wheel bling! My time trial helmet should be in Wednesday too.

Bubba #5 Cyclocross

I FINISHED!!!!! Goal this week was to do just that, finish. I started the first lap running the same pace as the leaders but as the first lapped neared completion, my heart rate was threw the roof so I backed off and eventually settled into a pace I could maintain and actually in the closing laps the legs felt really good. I'm actually looking forward to racing this weekend and having fun just being out there.

EBAY

I've been very fortunate to have very pleasurable experiences on Ebay both buying and selling items. Last Friday I won an auction for a set carbon wheels I had been eyeing and used paypal to pay for them within hours of the auction ending. Naturally when I'm the seller I put things in the mail immediately once I have the money. Lets just say this seller didn't do the same for me. It is now one week later and I have no wheels. The seller has only responded to one email I've sent him. Tonight I had it in mind I would go through the motions of trying to recover my money. I used the Ebay chat session to have my questions answered on what route to go. They recommended I get the sellers phone number. My first thought was why even bother talking to the person that has been the cause of the problem anyway. I did go ahead and request the sellers phone number and did speak with him. Long story short he says he has been really busy but not so busy that he still found time to transfer my money to his account. He says he emailed me the tracking info yesterday and the wheels should get here no later than Wednesday nextweek. I have recieved no such email with tracking info. He is currently not at his residence so he says he will send the tracking number again later this weekend. I will say he has bought himself some time and I don't feel as worried as before but the jury is still out until I have the wheels in hand.

BUYERS BEWARE

Cycling ROCKS Birthday and Bubba Week 3

Friday was my 26th birthday. The girlfriend threw me a surprise dinner with friends at PF Chengs that evening. She also hook me up with several great gifts. The first being 2 Rock Racing shirts. I like to consider myself a fashionable guy lol and Rock Racing owner Michael Ball designs some pretty cool cycling apparel. The kits they offer are all pretty cool but a bit pricey. We are talking about $300-$400 for complete jersey and bib kit. I had on one of the t-shirts Saturday.

She aslo got me a Giro Advantage II 09 edition time trial helmet. Only she got me the wrong the size. It will be shipped back this week and exchanged. I only need a bike now!
As for the race today, well I didn't get involved in any crashes. The course was pretty brutal on the legs. Cx racing is definitely not coming easy for me. I got out into about 10th place and felt the gaps opening behind me in the field. Big problem was I was running pretty much full tilt to keep my position and I couldn't maintain that pace. So I started to ease off the pace and watched people pass me by all up until the point where I threw in the towel. I really just need to sit in and suffer and enjoy just being out there. I will start this philosphy in the next race, but the competitive edge in me always wants to simply compete and heck maybe even win. I went through the same thing racing on the road and it took a couple years to get the legs to be competitive in that discipline. Until then though I will enjoy the atmosphere, music,and food!

After the race I headed over to my league basketball game. I was alittle late and the game had already started when I got there. We were down by 10 points just three minutes into the game. I hit the floor and we were right back in the game taking the lead by 2 points heading into half time. The second half I couldn't sink any three balls but had a few hard drives to the bucket and got fouled then knocked down my free throws. Needless to say we lost by 2 but we had every opportunity to win the game in the last 2 minutes. We are now 0-2.

This week I'm heading back to my alma mater of Tuskegee University to take part in Homecoming activities. I'll be flying out to Atlanta Thursday morning and driving down to Tuskegee, Alabama. Its only about 1.5 hour ride. So that means no cx race or basketball for me next Sunday.