A much needed night off...

I took last night off with sore knees and a generally tired body. Now that's not to say we didn't accomplish anything yesterday. We went out and got new waterproof watches to use for timing during the race. Ironman branded Timex watches no less. Because of my wifes position with the university, she gets a discount at a certain local store. I didn't learn that until she purchased her new orthotics last night, and they rang her up with at 10% off. As they had the watches as well, I figured we might as well get them at a discount, even if it meant not doing a lot of comparison shopping. (I'd already made Rach sit through me shopping for work shoes). So, now the only thing we have left to get are the bento (food) bags for the top tubes of our bike, and make sure we have everything we need to go in them prior to race day.

Back when we were in Columbus, I spent a good bit of time volunteering and learning at Third Hand Bike Co-op. It's where I learned almost everything I know about fixing bikes, and also had a lot of fun. I've been looking to continue my learning experience as well as giving back to the cycling community since arriving in Boston. Bikes not Bombs is the local cycling entity that serves the same role as Third Hand, and I've known about it almost since we got to town. With everything that's been going on, I haven't felt like I've had enough time to really get involved.

But that's all changing here in the next few weeks. As triathlon season rolls to an end, I've joined the organization, and am actually using tonight's open shop as a chance to tune up some aspects of my bike prior to Timberman. I may still get a professional tune depending on what I see happening with the bike tonight, but I hope to avoid it as i continue to get better at maintaining my own bike.

One of the things I've applied for is to become an adult instructor. Bikes not Bombs offers a series of courses designed to prepare a person to teach youth on building and maintaining bicycles. You have to get approved for the course, and once you are approved you then have to commit to teaching a class each week for a few months in the fall. To me this seemed like a perfect opportunity to continue to learn, and then to be able to use that knowledge to give back to the community. If I'm approved, the classes will start next week.