Hmmm. What to do?

I am thinking about not XC racing at all in the month of July. I want to do some charity rides and maybe a six-hour race. I have had fun doing to the Kenda Cup East Series, but I am tired and broke from the traveling. All of my races this year except for the two Georgia Cup TT races have required hotel stays. I camped for the Tsali race, and that was a nightmare.

I already have my mind on cyclocross and think it is time to start running. I sold my Blue CX 5.5 and am looking forward to replacing it with a Blue CXC. I have all of the parts except for the crankset and the frameset. I am undecided as to whether I should get a SRAM crankset and change the outter chainring or get an FSA cyclocross specific crankset and not have to change the outter ring. Hmmm. Thoughts to ponder...

New SRAM and Zipp Stuff

After I sold my Orbea, I had no component group for my Blue RC7. I put together a mix of Force and Red. The front and rear derailleurs, the brakes, cassette, and chain are Force. The shifters and the 52/36 crankset are Red. It took me a few rides to get used to the shifting, but now it is starting to feel normal. I sure do like my new crankset. I went from 165 mm crank arms to 170s, so I was able to drop my seat down a little bit which is much more comfortable for my lower back. The shifting is very smooth.

I recently got some Zipp Team Edition wheels with Ti skewers. These wheels are the bomb. They are as light as Mavic Ksyrium SLs and are much quieter. I like a quiet wheel over one that makes that ticking sound. It lets me hear if everything is working properly on my bike. The Zipp TE wheelset is very light and responsive.

I am happy with my "new" RC7. It is more fun to ride with top of the line equipment.

Fun Time Trial

I've been having a hard time this mountain bike season, because the move up in category has doubled the length of my races. I have had trouble with getting my fueling right to where I am not either bonking or getting sloshy stomach. I also haven't adjusted to having the whole men's pro/cat 1 field lap me, causing me to have to stop many times to let them pass. Ugh. I have gotten discouraged.

To pick up my spirits, I thought that I might do a time trial (road) today. I went to the GA Cup TT #3 in Gillsville, GA, near Gainesville. Baron, my eleven year old German Shepherd couldn't make up his mind this morning about pottying, which added to my late departure. After a rediculously fast drive, I got to the race at 7:30, fifteen minutes before registration closed. It was freezing. There was some sort of mix up with the women's start times, and several of them started early. I was started on time. The course was fantastic. It was on a low travel country road. The hills were neither long nor steep, which made me happy. As I rode along, I noticed that my heart rate wasn't going up into the 170s like it normally does during a race. My legs were tired from riding more than usual in the past week. I guess my legs were so tired that they couldn't go fast enough to get my heart rate up and get me breathing hard. Hmmm. I was third, which was last, but I had fun, and at least I was competetive. If I had pushed harder, I know I could have been faster, so I am going to show up with rested legs and let it all out at the next GA Cup TT in Juliette, GA.

Suunto t6c

Ugh! I paid $350 for a Suunto t6c wrist computer in June. It isn't working. The time went all crazy on me, so I thought it was the battery. I changed it after scraping salty crud off the inside rim. Now the watch won't even turn on, so I am going to have to try to call customer service in Finland to find out where to send the watch to get it fixed. Oh, joy.

The t6c does everything except sing and dance for you. It has heart rate, average heart rate, time in two zones, altitude, temperature, EPOC, and training effect. If I wanted to buy several over priced pods, I could get the speed, cadence, and elevation change on my bike or on a run. I stiill haven't figured out how to use half of the features, or how to download my workouts. I'm thinking I may not be able to figure them out unless I get a degree in electronics engineering. It's always an adventure reading instruction manuals written by non-native English speakers.

Hopefully, getting this thing won't be overly complicated, and I will have a heart rate monitor again soon. I have a knack for destroying them. I have killed a Polar s150, a Timex Ironman HRM, a Sigma Onyx Fit, and possibly this Suunto t6c. Darn it. Technically, I didn't kill the Ironman. The jeweler who didn't know how to change the battery did it.