Tomorrow is the Reston Century - I've been training for this moment for the past 7 months, hard. I've been biking 7 days a week - 2 hours+ after work every night, 3-5 hours a day on saturday and sunday. I've bought a new road bike - only a month or so ago, already put 1300+ miles on it so far. Since February, I have biked more than 6,000+ miles. I am very proud. I am very Terrified. I am very Excited. This is gonna be the coolest thing I have done in a half a decade. Leave a comment here to wish me luck! Tomorrow night I may be a little sore - and hopefully I will have a few pics in the next few weeks (if I remember to take a camera).

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Busy ass day at work - and ABBA was in a frightengly grand mood today, so ther day was pleasant and quick. Got off work at 5:30 - went biking from Sterling to East Falls Church and back 42 miles, was very hot and humid but a small breeze pushed me home. On the way home, I stopped at the Performance bike shop right off the trail in Reston to get some light titanium grease to deal with the new creak that has developed somewhere on the frame. I decided that I'd just take the bike to the back where the mechanics were. I asked "who here is the best at isolating an annoying creak in my frame and quieting it?" This older dude raised his hand..slowly came over...sized me up and my bike then said "sure, dude - nice bike I think I've seen ya on the trail a few times..." I said yes. Then I described the bikes' short life history and what/how I've maintained it...the 1300+ miles I've put on it in the past month. He said, without a doubt - "I can find it". Cool, I thought to myself...I'll just mill about the huge bike shop and look at stuff (I wasn't really gonna buy anything - i had another 8 miles to bike home, something small possibly).

So I checked back with the mechanic - and he looked perplexed. I asked what the deal was. He basically took every single thing off the bike, cleaned it, greased it, and then put it back on the frame and torque tightened it to it's precise specs - everything - bottom bracket, crankshaft, headset, front/rear derailers, shifters, front and rear brakes, handlebars & stem & for, seatpost and seat - even the two water bottle cages - all taken off, cleaned, relubed and replaced. Took him almost 40 minutes. He was standing there shaking his head with his 3 other bike mechanics - saying "sheesh, I am stumped - there must be a defect in the frame" I felt horrible - not to mention, crap - I have to contact Bikesdirect.com and tell them I have a defective frame - they need to send me a new one - have my mechanic put it together - and then send them the defective frame back (lifetime garantee against defects). What a pain in the ass. The mechanic said that even though it's annoying to hear - it's not unsafe to ride, what a releif, the Century is on sunday (which incidentally - 3 of the 5 bike mechanics that were there are racing at as well (will prolly see them the same time on Sunday). So I biked back to my car dissappointed. It's just a creak - I'll have the frame replaced - no biggie.

Came home, ate dinner, did some domestic stuff, watched a little Olympics (wow..thrilling Friday night...party on!, meh). Tomorrow will do some more domestic stuff, and yard stuff then errand stuff then only a 20 mile bike ride to stretch my legs for Sunday. I need to go to bed early tomorrow night - I want to get there at @ 7:15/30am. Hard to gague what the entire day will be like. I am terrified, anxious, nervous and excited all at the same time. It's gonna be a great experience.

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Work was almost a tolerable pleasure today. ABBA (Asshole Bipolar Boss Asshole) - was actually in a "bubbly" mood. Oy vay.

Bumped into my training partner while doing 42 miles on the WO&D trail tonight - looks like she may be doing the Metric Century (65 miles) this Sunday - which will be cool. We'll bike the first 30 miles together - then the trail divides.

Ahhh...tomorrow is Friday - I am looking forward to a day off on Saturday before the Century and two days off from dealing with ABBA.

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Strange how after the past week and a half at work, i've see so many bipolar changes in a person - you can never predict what the day will be like. Today was one of the good days. Not only was asshole bipolar boss tolerable today - he was actually in a good mood. This almost frightened me. The day flew by - we finished a huge project that would have ordinarilly taken 3 weeks in 3 days. Slave-driving-in-need-of-psychopharmecutical-adjustment-boss to "blame" for that. THe product is finished despite the fact that he took a crap on what little morale there was to begin with (seems a few people have already lost all respect for him and are now secretly looking for another job - he will be at a loss when we all leave at about the same time - not my problem).

Was a beautiful evening for a bike ride (only 41 miles tonight) - but now that it is turning into Fall soon, it's starting to get darker. When I get back from my bike ride the past few days - it's almost dark. I need to put my light system on my bike (after this Sunday). I did notice today that the rear mini LED-flasher must have fallen off my hydration bladder sack sometime this week. I need to get a new one this weekend (especially if it rains). Speaking of rain - I looked at the weather for this weekend - Sunday (Reston Century), High: 82°F Scattered T-Storms Wind: From the South at 7 mph Precip: 40 % Max. Humidity: 80 % UV Index: 7 High (metric: High: 28°C Scattered T-Storms Wind: From the South at 11 km/h Precip: 40 % Max. Humidity: 80 % UV Index: 7 High). I have a feeling it's going to pose a minor problem - and a bit more for the challenge.

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I cannot wait to get a new job - this is driving me nuts. I am a very patient person - and I can tolerate alot - but this whole issue of my bipolar boss is now starting to bother this old dawg. I can only take it as amusing to get me through the day. Today was a repeat of yesterday, teemed with more paranoia and delusions. I have an interview late next week - I hope to hear more responses to the resume packets I sent out this week.

Was a beautiful day to go on a 42 mile bike ride. The temp was a little warm but there was a breeze. But it was crowded - especially near Vienna. Lotta families out - glad to see them out enjoying the weather - but sheesh, PLEASE control yer kids. I am moving at a fast clip of anywhere between 18-28mph - if your 2 year old girl or boy who has no concept of physics (road bike hits human is bad) and sporatically runs in front of me - who knows what could happen. I've veered off the trail to avoid this - potentially causing me to wreck causing physical damage to me or my bike. (granted I bought the bike at a huge discount, but I doubt a parent would like to replace my $2600 bike - the frame itself is $1700 because I had to dodge their kid and crash). These parents need to realize that the trail requires a little more attention to keep the kids controlled. There are 80% bikers, 10% runners and 10% walkers.

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I always speak too soon about things - asshole boss settled down late last week (prolly on his meds) - but come this morning - it was a repeat of last monday, with the exception of not sending us home (he threatened to). The whole day was a stressful mess of appeasing his innerconflicts and lack of communication (for example - he began to dispute and say "no no no - i did NOT say I liked this design...i hate it - can't we change it...I'm not a designer...but I know what I dislike. Why did we proceed with this?" My response - well, you signed off on it - here's the sign off - here it says how much you loved how elegant the design is........" He repleid - "I did not write that - where did that come from? I know we talked about this on Friday.." (He was not in on Friday) On and ON and on...all frickin day.

Scuse my french..but fuck that. I finally left the office at about 6:30...went on a 42 miler - came home late, had dinner and have spent the past hour sending out more resumes and on the phone with my dear friend Angie in Richmond. There is the Heart of Virginia Century in September near Richmond the weekend of the 18th. SHe will take me in for the weekend while I do the Century - she may do a 25 miler with me on Sunday (it's a weekend long bikefest to benefit the Hannover Mental Health Organization - how ironic [with my boss...and Angie is a Clinical Phsychologist]). I am sending the registration stuff tomorrow.

Another day..another donut. I am looking forward to interviews next week.

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Little tired from staying up too late last night - but I slept in and did yard stuff, car stuff..then bike stuff. Only a 54 miler today. Came home and made grilled chicken and linguini with some of my homemade pesto and broccoli - total yum.

Odd story..while on the trail today I biked for a number of miles with this dude - we were drafting off each other then finally we struck up a conversation about the weather..bikes...people on the trail. He told me he calls his bike "the pervert bike" - I waited for the story. Seems that about 5 years ago - there was this guy who lived across the street from his sister in Herndon - who was a sex crime offender who kept a little girl in hostage. He was finally taken into custody. A month later while the pervert was in prison - he was evicted from his place - they threw all his crap out on the front lawn - including a really nice racing bike. This was the bike he was riding. Odd.

In a week from today - I'll be doing the Reston Century (which I found out is not 100 miles...but a little more than 105 miles). This time next week I'll be hurting like a mo fo.

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