A fun day

Yesterday was fun.

I spent the better part of the day giving myself a few well deserved over congratulatory pats on the back for being able to tell people about my life for a year. Then following a quick dinner with the Mrs. I attended a swap meet put on by the Back Bay Cycling Club. I was already in a celebratory mood when I got there, and I have to say it was pretty cool.

The location where the swap meet was held at The Record Company, a soon-to-open non-profit recording studio. So far, it looks more like a recently abandoned warehouse, but you can see where they're going with it, and the condition only added to the feel of the event. It was crammed full of bikes, bike parts, clothing, accessories, and people. I've seen bike shops here in Boston with less good stuff than this.

Along with everyday cyclists "pedaling" their wares *rimshot*, were local boys Adam Myerson and Jesse D Anthony, who are professional cyclists and all around good guys. I went in looking for perhaps a pair of bike shoes in my size that would work with the SPD pedals I got from my friend John, and maybe something cool that caught my eye (another jersey for the collection, perhaps?).

I made my way around the room once, and on my first pass, didn't see anyone who was tall enough to have feet my size (or jerseys my size), so the shoes were out. But I did sign up for the raffle. A couple of the prizes were new bike shoes from a bike shop, so I hoped maybe I'd get those.

After the raffle I made my way back to the start of the room where I noticed a couple of petite ladies with a table of their own and some jerseys. The more I looked, the more I liked. Hey, get your mind out of the gutter! I meant the jerseys! They had some really rad stuff. At least one, and perhaps both gals (whose names I'll have later) have raced for all-female cycling teams. I wound up picking up two jerseys for Rach, giving her the beginning of her own jersey collection.

After giving up on finding shoes I got the idea to look for pedals. My Look Keo Easy pedals were on my bike when it was stolen earlier this year. I still have the shoes that work with those pedals and if I found pedals that worked with them, it would allow me to give Rach the SPD pedals, and get her shoes to work with them.

During my second pass around the room, I found 3 sets of Look pedals, and I wound up buying a pair of unused 2008 Look Keo Sprint pedals for $15. They're an upgrade over the Keo Easy pedals I had previously, because the release tension is adjustable to provide a more secure lock between the cleat and the pedals. I picked up a pair of socks for Rach and I from Adam with his Cycle-Smart logo on them and split. Rach had spin class at 8:30, so I had to leave a bit lot earlier than I wanted to (like 2 1/2 hours earlier).

The goods

When Rach got back from spinning class, she wanted to go back over and look at some more stuff, but by the time we got back there, most everyone was either closing down or gone. But when we stopped by the raffle table I found out I won a little gift pack from Newbury Comics, a local media store. I got a $25 gift card and two pair of awesome cycling socks.

not bad for $6

Notes:

- The only bad part about yesterday is that my legs were just shot. I've been doing short but challenging running or riding workouts every day for a week, and my legs are beat. I managed a mere 8 minutes last night on the rollers and had to stop twice. This on the heels of being completely pooped after running 13 minutes on Wednesday and with a race on Sunday, I'm going to take it easy the next two days to get some recovery time in. I'm taking today off, and probably just doing a light spin outside on the bike tomorrow.

- Rach liked her jerseys so much she wanted to model them, and so the pics of that are "BONUS FRIDAY CONTENT":

Is she a cyclist or a NASCAR driver?

Do you think maybe she loves this jersey?