2 minutes.

How many times have you said that in your life? "Give me two minutes, I'll be ready". Yeah, we've all said it before, heard our kids say it, "Ah, Dad, come on. Two minutes more to watch TV?" Or, "Dinner will be ready in two minutes". It didn't really strike as a catch phrase, something to remember, or ponder. Well, I will remember two minutes, for the rest of my life!

Sometimes I cringe at the thought, other times I laugh. My wife and I joke about it, and I make fun of myself to my friends about it (now). And I got mad about it, felt sad about it, felt sorry for myself (not for long). I felt like quitting. I felt like I had wasted a great moment. An epic failure, never before had I not finished an even I had signed up for. Never.

But, then I got motivated by it.

So, I'm still no triathlete. No, not yet. On to why that is.

Here I am, pre swim. Note the red buoy WAY out over my left shoulder, in the distance, that was the 1st turn, where we made a hard right and swam south almost all the way to the North Pier:

Suited up, almost time...

How does the two minutes come into play? Well, two minutes was the time in which I missed the swim cut off time for IM Racine. Here is a pic of me all suited up, just prior to the swim start for my wave. One of the logistical problems, at least for me, was the fact I was starting the race in the 2nd to last wave. The last wave started 4 minutes behind my wave, and to make the cut off for an IM sanctioned 70.3, you have 70 minutes from the last wave start to finish. I had 74 minutes to swim 1.2 miles. I swam it in 76.

Here are some more pics from the start, a good crowd was on the beach that morning, hundreds of racers, several hundred friends and family walked down to cheer us on at the start, to the north:

Looking back south towards the North beach swim finish:

My wave, wading out into the chilly 64 degree Lake Michigan water:

My wave, heading out past the yellow marker, to the 1st turn:

Heading back to our tent/cheering section, my race day done!

The remainder of my "race" was spent here, sipping an Amstel, or a water:

Who came wandering down by us, to say "Hi" and cheer on the mere mortals? 

 

None other that Craig "Crowie" Alexander, the reigning IM World Champion and overall winner (big time) of the Inaugural IM Racine 70.3, here he is with Kim, my buddy's wife: 

Alexander the Great(2nd in pic) and the other male pros, running to the bike area:

Needless to say, I was disappointed beyond words. I felt pretty good once out of the water, at least until the official said I was the 1st one to miss the cut. In looking back at the swim, I started off terribly. I swam to the 1st red buoy (where we made the turn), and I felt the need to stop and rest. I continued on, making it from buoy to buoy along the route. At least a few times, I found myself swimming off course WAY farther out than I needed to be-I'm talking 75 yards or more out west of the north to south swim lane, costing me more precious time and energy. I felt a bit of panic early on-I won't lie about this. I remember thinking to myself at about the 2nd red buoy marker after the turn, "What the fuck did I get myself into here". I saw several other racers from my wave, and the last wave (based on swim cap colors) getting plucked from the water. One girl looked really, really scared and water logged as they pulled her up into a boat.

I wasn't alone; one of the pros in the swim kept going due south, missing the last buoy marker to turn into shore (another racer and I started in the last two waves, we had enough time to watch the mens pros come out of the water before we even walked the mile down the beach to the swim start). The officials on the back of a personal water craft were blowing their whistles at him, trying to get his attention, for several minutes before he finally held up and got turned, but he lost some ground to the other pros.

The final kicker for this OWS-my first this far out in Lake Michigan without my jet ski with for support-was that by the time my wave started, the winds had kicked up from the south/southeast. The chop builds very fast on Michigan, it's not a body of water to fool with. So for the last half of the swim, the chop and swells built to 1-2 footers. It was rolling so good, and right at us swimmers, that it knocked one of the life guards off her surf board twice while I was close to her. She was saying, "Holy shit, did this get rough out here". Onto the sand again, walk to the shore, struggle to grab hold of the lanyard on the wetsuit to start pulling it off. The official coming up telling me, sorry, but we need your timing chip. You missed the swim cut by two minutes. What? Shock set in.

I can honestly say, this was the hardest swim I had ever done in my life, by far. But stopping and not racing, I felt like I was going to puke all over.

The Good: I finished the swim. Albeit too slow for IM cut off times, but I did the entire 1.2 mile swim. One other racer that hung out with us along the run route, she is a sponsored duathlete and is very much in shape. She came up later and was telling us she was the 1st out of the water-hell, we all thought she was out of the water with the pros, that she was that fast. No, she clarified, she made it to the 1st red buoy marker, and called for the support boat to pull her out of the water. I felt a little better after hearing this. After all, I did the entire swim. And damn, was I close to making the cut, only two minutes over.

The really good thing was, I felt good after the swim. I felt like I grew stronger in the last 1/3 of the swim, even though this was during the worst of the conditions out there. I swam longer at the end too, taking far fewer stops to catch my breath. I felt like I was ready to get on the TT bike and tear it up.

The Bad: I thought long and hard about the reason I ended with a big old fat DNF. I looked back on my training logs, and it is as plain as the nose on my face: I did not train enough for the swim. I didn't do nearly enough long swims, not enough time in the pool, not enough prep time in becoming a better swimmer. Was it a bad choice by myself, picking a 70.3 IM sanctioned event for my 1st triathlon? Maybe. But then again, maybe not. I know I can do the distance (even though I swim slow!). And even though I went way over what I thought I'd swim it in, the thought comes back, two minutes too slow...

And so, this gave me motivation to move on, to start looking ahead.

What's next? At least three more races are on my calendar this year. 
1) Sept 4th, the Lake Country 1/2 Marathon, out in the Lakes area west of me.
2) Sept 11th, Lake Geneva Extreme Sports 1/2 Extreme 70.3 triathlon.
3) Oct 3rd, Milwaukee Marathon.


The Lake Geneva Tri has no stringent cut off times, so that will ease some of the pressure. I need to do this race, one of the last 70.3 events in this area for the year. It is like a mental weight on me now-if I don't complete what I started out to do in July, it's going to bother me, eat at me, all winter long. I just have to get this goal done, just for me. 


I've been swimming more-I got back in the pool almost right away to work on my weakness in this great sport. I've since cut down my 2,100 yard time to about 55 minutes-almost 21 minutes faster than the (in)famous IM Racine swim time. I've also done numerous 2,500 yard, 50 lap swims. I've worked on my stroke a bit, and can feel the improvement in the pool. I rest a lot less than I did in pre race swims. I feel I have improved a fair amount since mid July. I guess we will see about that...


The Lake Country 1/2 Mary is more of a training run, to set me up for the 70.3 a week later. I'm shooting for about 2 hours, no PR quest this year (I ran it in 2008 in 1hr 47m and change). Just an organized long run this year.


The Milwaukee Marathon, well, that will be interesting too. I've had to "lose" some of my running time and fitness in order to swim and bike more evenly. More on this one later, after I finish #s 1 and 2.


More on training to come, like my 8 miler in the blazing heat today and some pics of my new CO2 air set up on my TT bike. Stay tuned for some other things that have been going on since the last time I checked in...Oh, and check the "new" banner (almost the same as the old banner) at the top of the page, notice the new date? New race goals for 2011 have been set and will be coming to the blog soon...

IM Update

Today, the IM Racine Expo opened, as did packet pick-up. So the family and I stopped downtown right after it opened. Things were quiet early in the day today, there was no wait in line for my packet, my race chip works and everything went smoothly. I saw zero Pros walking around. Maybe tomorrow...

Racine Festival Park, site of the IM Expo:

Expo tent, where the IM schwagg was ( yeah I bought a few goodies!):

North Beach, where we will swim. They put out some small white course markers, man they are FAR out there. You see the small, old pier in the foreground? That's the entry point. We'll have to swim out past those boats in the center of the frame, and head up towards the pier you see in the distance. The exit point is way way down the beach, almost to the pier. GULP. Whoa boy...

My buddy and I swam this yesterday, it was nice and warm outside. Well, the air temp was warm, at least. The water temps for Lake Michigan were supposed to be in the low 70s, according to online maps. Yeah, let me tell ya. Once you got out from shore, you could feel the temps drop. We swam from this same pier in this pic to the far section of beach you see, way up in the right upper corner of the pic. Not quite to the pier, but within a couple hundred yards. Probably 2,000 yards or so, maybe slightly more, in around 40 minutes, which surprised me.

And what you can't see, there is some chop (yesterday was worse, with about 1-2 foot swells with a SW wind blowing at 15-20mph). So, I got a headache from the cold ass water, swallowed a bunch of water from the swells, coughed or burped up and puked a little in my mouth (yeah, I chugged a Coke literally right before we waded in and swam-smart, I know. Note to self-DO NOT slam a Coke on race morning right before the swim). OK, so I took a break, swam on my back for awhile, until the puking feeling went away. Then, I felt better and was able to get my stroke down fairly well. Oh, another thing about swimming in cold ass water-it's very hard to get your breathing right. It's hard to exhale under the cold water, so you force out the air as you're turning your head to take your next breath.

The wetsuit worked fine, it fits perfectly. Floats like a bobber (I don't even have to tread water with this suit!), it feels slicker and fast(er) in the water, not like I'm fast, but this can't hurt. If anything, it's too hot! Even in this cold ass Midwest Great Lakes water. I found myself feeling like I was heating up, so I opened up the neck seal and let some cold water rush in, which did the trick. This (hopefully) won't be an issue race day morning, like I said it was about 90 degrees when we swam this yesterday. It should be around 68-70 deg Far. in the AM on race day. Now, the updated forecast is calling for a high of 89 degrees and humid. Great, lets make the race just a little bit harder!

Let's see, what else. Race day nutrition, all set out:

IM Race numbers! WHoop WHoop!!

Race gear, set out all over the living room floor (and the wife doesn't even care!)

Tomorrow, what's on the agenda? Well, we have a race meeting at noon, which lasts about an hour. My buddy Ryan and I are attending, then it's off to grab his race packet, drop the bikes at the corral and hit the Expo one more time. Yeah, I will probably buy a few more bits of race schwagg. I got some, but WTH, they have some cool IM Racine 70.3 things, so why not?

Stay tuned, more pics of the IM bike corral and swim course tomorrow. Hopefully they have the BIG inflatable course markers out tomorrow.

New Race Gear.

Ok, the FedEx guy came this AM, and brought me a nice little box. What was in there???

My new Zoot Fuzion wetsuit! It's finally here, from TriSports.com. I tried it on, whoop whoop, it fits too (although, it was a bit steamy on this 80 degree day!). I will admit, I was a little nervous about buying a wetsuit without trying several on. The sizing chart seems to be dead on from the website (thankfully). This particular model was on sale and had the best matched size for my frame and height. I did not have a Tri specific suit before this, only more scuba wetsuits from back in the jet ski days. I really did not want to swim 1.2 miles in one of those suits. So I liquidated some old bike parts (and got an advance on my birthday present) and here we are. Oh, the old scuba suits have since sold too, so there is some more money for the bike/racing account...

Also, check these out!

Not from Trisports, but from a local retailer, I was surprised to actually see them on the shelf (this was the last tinted pair, lucky me). I've seen a bunch of good write ups on these goggles, and liked them the second I tried them on. Great fit around my nose and eyes, super wide angle of view, nice dark tint lens, quick adjust straps and a decent price. Bingo, we have a winner! I'm heading to the pool tomorrow AM before work for a short swim, and will give them a try-I'm sure I will like them better than the dinky pair I have now.

Ok-I have some Body Glide, now I just need to pick up some Suit Juice from the scuba shop. Almost ready for race day. A trip to the grocery store by the end of the week is in order, I need to pick up a few things for my T1/T2 menu.

Also-I need to update my training #s for July. I got my last run in today-in the mid day heat again (mid 80s and sunny). Here are the #s:

A decent pace for the heat of the day, I didn't really push it much, just ran a nice easy pace and focused on keeping the HR in check.

Stay tuned for more updated on IM Racine 70.3 week. I will post some pics from our OWS on Thursday afternoon, then Friday from the IM expo!

Only 4 days to go!

All about the numbers.

It's all about the numbers, the numbers, it's the numbers we all want, isn't it? When we talk about training, racing, running, riding, swimming, eating, drinking, working, most anything and everything we do in our lives each and every day, it's all about the numbers. And I've been thinking of numbers (or #s, if you will) a lot in the past few weeks.

For example, I thought about numbers today when I stopped at Woodman's Grocery after my post work swim. I was picking something up for dinner, and I was checking numbers on the food labels, looking at the calories, the carbs, the fat, the sugars. Really, I don't obsess with the numbers on foods, much of the time. I eat fairly healthy. I work out. I can't remember the last time I had fast food. I don't drink much soda (a small 8 ounce regular Coke is the bomb for post workout recoveries, however, and is my exception to this rule). I try not to drink too much beer.

I was looking for pizza dough, so I could make a homemade pizza tonight. But, we simply cannot find frozen or fresh pizza dough, at any of the grocery stores within roughly 20 miles of us. WTH? They used to sell three different brands right up the road at Pick N Save. I even called our local pizza haunt-Derango's the Pizza King-to see if they'd sell me a few pizza doughs. They wouldn't. Hmmpfh.

So I settled with Tilapia and turkey burgers, so we had a choice. We opted for the burgers. Tomorrow, baked Tilapia. And speaking of numbers, there must be a number of ways I can make homemade pizza dough. I need to find a recipe for this ASAP.

And more numbers I've been thinking of-the number of days left before IM Racine race day. Less than 7 days to go. And after my swim today, I was thinking of numbers again, as I drove around in search of pizza dough. My race buddy Bob asked me last week what kind of numbers I had in for the year, for biking, running, etc. I told him I had no idea.

So, I ran some numbers on my workouts, just to see what I've done to prepare for this long, strange trip to the land of IM 70.3. In looking back at the training logs, I started training for this 70.3 race about mid to late May (pathetically short, I know. It snuck up in me, and I procrastinated fiercely.). Here are the monthly #s:

MAY:
0 swims
5 bike rides, 122.96 miles (only 3 on the TT bike)
4 runs, 16.76 miles
15,270 kcalories

JUNE:
10 swims, 11,300 yards
7 TT bike rides, 182.73 miles
11 runs, 52.61 miles
30,126 kcalories


JULY: **Updated 7/12/10**
3 swims, 4,750 yards
3 TT bike rides, 36.84 miles
3 runs, 22.5 miles
8,241 kcalories


**July 12th update**:


The TT ride today was simply awesome! I rode part of the IM course, for a total of 18.08 miles in 55min 30sec. I averaged 19.6mph, even with several stops for stop signs and traffic (this won't be a problem during the race-the LE officials hold up traffic for the racers at each intersection). My HR was kept in check, despite the good time, averaging 147 bpm, and 161 bpm max (on a small climb, of course!). My legs felt super, rested and strong. My aero position felt great, and I rode in aero for much of the ride (probably 75%). This was a bit faster and harder than I intended on riding, but I felt simply great. I also tried some new nutrition, Hammer Perpetuem, a powder you mix with water for fuel. No problems with this Hammer nutrition-it tasted fairly good (a little watered down, but better than too strong or too sweet), and I had no GI problems. I drank one small bottle of Perpetuem and one bottle of water, perfect amount. This was the best I've felt on my TT bike this year, and builds my confidence for the bike leg of the race!


I'm still waiting on that package from FedEx-it should be here tomorrow AM. But I did make a purchase today, kind of a matching item for the one I'm waiting on. I will post pics of both new "related items" when I get that package!!

So, there are the (updated) training numbers. My swim numbers are low, which is ridiculous, because this is the area where I needed the most work and improvement. Not to say I haven't improved in the swim-I have, big time. I can swim much faster than when I started flopping around the lane. I feel stronger in my shoulders, my chest, my abs. I can swim a 1.2 mile course now (did this today), whereas in May, I would have never been able to. Am I going to swim the course in sub 40 minutes, no. Will I finish, yeah, I think I will be OK.

The bike and the run, these are my stronger areas. I rode the entire IM bike course twice, and rode good chunks of it at least 10 other times. I know the course, and my TT bike is dialed in for me (finally). My run has been decent, going from slowing down after I got sick in the beginning of May, to picking my pace and learning to train in multi disciplines every week. I did a bunch of bricks, both swim/runs and bike/runs, and felt good doing it. My last long run was this past Wednesday, 10.5 miles in 1h 39m at about a 9:25 split. This was in the dead heat of the middle of the day, 11am to 12:36pm, with temps about 85 degrees and a heat index in the mid 90s. I felt good, with some left in the tank afterwards. I did this run at that time frame, deliberately. Why?

Well, IM Racine finally put out the swim wave times in the past few weeks. There are 19 waves, going from 7am to 8:20am, with a total number of racers at 2008 persons, per the IM site. Wow, this is a big race. That's not why I ran the long run in the heat of the day-I did this because my swim wave is at 8:16am, second to last to start. Well, this is good, and this is bad. The good-I won't have but one wave behind me, so there won't be a thousand of us in the water, swimming over each other and kicking each other in the face. The bad? Yeah, this means my bike leg will be finishing around noon, and my run will start just as the heat of the day is peaking. I looked at the extended forecast too, just to see. The weather gurus are forecasting a high of 86 degrees, mostly sunny and light SW winds, a low chance of rain. So, it's gonna be HOT! I feel ready for this now.

What's left for training and other misc activities? Well, I've started my taper. I've got a TT ride planned for tomorrow, maybe 20 miles, at an easier pace, just to spin out the legs one last time. Tuesday will be my last run, maybe a 4 to 5 miler at under race pace. More of a recovery run than anything. Wednesday, I will catch a pre-work swim. Thursday, my buddy from work (who is also a first time tri guy, doing this 70.3 for his first, albeit he is over ten years younger than me!) and I are doing an open water swim at North Beach in Lake Michigan, right where the race runs. Water temps have been good, surprisingly, from the mid 60s to about 70 from all this heat and lack of strong west winds. Got to love it-a hometown race advantage, being close to the race site is an advantage, right? Friday sees the official IM expo open, so we'll be heading down during the day for packet pick-up, maybe a little shopping for IM schwagg, and dinner at a little Italian place downtown with friends. Saturday, we have the race meeting at noon, and then bike check-in. Gear checking and packing/unpacking rituals will begin in the middle of the week. Check over all gear, pack it up. Unpack it. Repeat. I'm stocked up on Hammer gels, Powerade, Luna bars and Perpetuem fuel (also by Hammer, which I have switched to almost exclusively).

Speaking of shopping, I'm expecting a package from FedEx in the next day or two. I will post a quick pic once I get it-yeah, of course it's for the race! I will post some pics of the IM expo and race areas on Fri and Sat. My buddy is borrowing my DSLR to shoot race day pics on Sunday, so we'll have a ton of race photos too. I told him to get a pic of Craig Alexander and TJ Tollekson, they'll be eating and showering by the time I start my run, I bet!!

Thats about all I got for now. Stay tuned for updated race info as the week goes on! IM Racine 70.3 is getting close and I'm getting pumped!

Father's Day.

Hello blogging world, its Father's Day 2010. I've been away for some time now. No-I did not move to some far away country without internet. No-I did not win the lottery (I wish...). And No-I have not given up on working out, running, biking and swimming. I just have not been blogging about it. I've been on FB a lot less as well, maybe a little social networking hangover, so to speak? Not sure why.

I ran the Lighthouse Run 4 mile competitive yesterday AM, finished in a not to bad time of 33m 33s, 18th out of 54th in my age group and 279th out of 1,022 overall. It was a fun event, hot, very hot early in the day-like 80s hot. No pics though. We had to park a ways from the start, so I had to leave the camera behind. My kids both did the fun run/walk, and they finished with no problems or complaints!

Other training: OK, Ironman Racine 70.3 is under 4 weeks away as I sit here (the screen shot is from when I signed up to race). I've been splitting up my training fairly well, IMO. Last week, for example. I swam almost 4K yards (not fast, but I'm swimming consistently 3-4 times a week). I ran 16 miles averaging a 8:20-8:45 split, and I biked the IM course twice for 18 and 23 miles, respectively, averaging 18-19mph each ride. I've ridden the entire 56 mile course twice now in the past month, got my TT bike position dialed in so I'm comfortable-I traded a fellow IM racer his aero bars for mine, I went with the "J" bend-now I can ride in aero position for a good stretch of time now, put out some decent power and get good speed. It will be a grand time, racing an IM sanctioned 70.3 right in my hometown-there are a BUNCH of entries according to the IM website. And I'm sure a bunch of top Pro triathletes will be in town-I know for fact Craig "Crowie" Alexander (the current IM World Champion) is racing it-we're guessing he will break the 4 hour mark for this race. The cheering section will be sure to shoot a bunch of pics for this one-and hopefully of me being able to cross the finish line in one piece.

Other things; I ordered a new pair of Michelin Pro Race 3 tires for the TT bike last night. PBK has an awesome price on them right now, $55 for two tires shipped. These will be perfect for the IM race. I need to install a new cable housing on the FD cable today, after a trip to the LBS. The cable housing somehow split and was pinching on the cable, don't know how this happened-I don't shift into the 39 ring ever around here. Yeah, I'm still spending money on bike parts, doing my part for the economy.

So thats all for now. I couldn't find a pic of my TT bike with my "new" setup. I will find one and post it later, along with short (more frequent, I hope...) updates as we get closer to IM Racine.

Happy Father's Day!

Bike parts, part 3.

So, I'm off work today, no overtime, nothing on the calendar to do. A perfect day to work on my bikes! Got up nice and early, brewed a pot of Alterra coffee (Milwaukee roasted, fresh, in your kitchen within 7 days of roast. Good stuff!), and got the kids off to school. My wife had a breakfast to attend with some friends, so I was home alone. Here is what the kitchen looked like early on:

This is what every guy's (or girl's) kitchen should look like! Bikes and parts, tools and stuff, all over!

I started by removing the Bonty crank from the E7:

And next, I cleaned everything in prep for installation. I also had to take the Ultegra chainrings back apart, and install the bolts with some locktight. The two cranks, side by side:

Pedals await the install, note the dirty gray Keo versus the brand spanking new red ones:

The end results on the E7, a nice looking Ultegra crank with gray Look Keos. Nice!

And the Giant, with new red Looks. Man, I love this bike!

A closer look at the red pedals, I think they accent the red and black theme well!

A closer look at the scratches in the frame and fork, from last year's crash in the Carolina's:

Some miscellaneous pics, just for fun:

And here is the lake effect snow we got hit with, right at rush hour. 3-6" more, I can't wait for Spring! Glad I was off today!

The E7 TT bike needs a front brake cable next. I was adjusting it today and noticed the cable was fraying pretty badly, from the original build by the looks of it. Also, I need to get some new tires before road training. The stock Bonty's basically peeled apart, with only +/- 400 miles on them! The only thing left made by Bonty are the wheels, and some day I hope to get ride of those too! No more Bonty, BOO for Bonty.

I got a quick spin on the TT (on the trainer, of course!), about 45 minutes prior to dinner. The crank itself is, as expected, as stiff as I could want. I could notice the longer crank arms right away-the arms on the TT bike are 175mm, all my other bikes, 172.5. The reasoning I came up with was this; last year, I felt like my seat needed to go up a bit higher, but my reach on the TT aero bars felt too far forward. I did not want to place so much weight/pressure on my forearms, as my right shoulder was bothering me on longer rides (say, 56 mile rides for a 70.3 race) from the pressure of being forward too much.

So, I shortened the stem, 100mm to 90mm. And I lengthened the cranks arms by 2.5mm. And I left the seat height alone (for now). I am still debating on switching to straight aero bars, instead of the "J" bends I currently have. I am still up in the air on this-I think I'm going to give it a few hundred miles to get used to the new parts and positioning, before I do anything else. I might have my wife photograph my TT position, and compare them to some photos of "real" TT and Tri riders online, just to see where my position is at. I've got some time, after all, the first real race with the TT bike is in July!

Anyway, thats all I got. Time for a glass of wine and some relaxation, maybe a good book. Or, maybe some Olympic hockey tonight-Russia plays Canada, so it would be fun to watch Alex Ovechkin and Sid Crosby beat on each other some and score a few goals. I think Canada will still win gold, despite the early lottery round loss to the US. Just my 2 cents!

Bike parts, #2.

It's late. I'm tired. I've got a 12+ hour day tomorrow at work. So this will be brief.

On the bright side, hey, I was excited today when I checked the mail and found my new (to me!) chainrings, shipped from Boulder, CO. They looked like new, really good condition!

I took a few minutes after dinner to throw them on the Ultegra crank, just to see how they'd look.

So, I think it's a pretty cool looking crankset! I like the "Ice" look, as matter of fact, I think the Ice grouppo would be the BOMB on my black and red Giant roadie.

Nah, I ain't springing for it, just sayin'.

My next build will be a Cervelo ultra uber light carbon fiber frame, SRAM groupset and some light 1,400 gram (ish) hoops (well, light, but I still need something sturdy enough to hold my butt!). Yeah, when?? When I get an extra $5 grand to blow, that is! That's all I got for now.

Watch for wrenching Wednesday's post with pics-I'm off work and should have time to do the install and ride it to test her out. I know it will be way way stiffer than the Bonty stuck on there now.