This week has, so far, been real good. Except for some aggravating trouble with my new bike that I will get to later, this week has been awesome.
First Off - Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.
Remember to be thankful for the health that allows us to be able to participate in the greatest sport on earth.
I actually celebrated the Thanksgiving Feast on Saturday with the family. I got my daughter and her family to join me on a 4.7 mile run before dinner to clear room for all the great food that would be going in. The run was excellent as usual, I ran with my daughter's son and he is quite a runner at 13 years old. I am hoping to get him into Triathlon training next year and he seems to be very interested. My daughter hasn't run in a while and by mile 2 she was already stopping to empty her stomach a little more. Once we were finished, we were all starving. The food was great and the desserts were awesome as well. It is wonderful to be able to have family and friends around to enjoy the holidays.
Monday I worked out at the gym - I did a little brick with a stationary bike and treadmill. It felt good to get back on my feet since the Rim Rock Run. My legs are feeling fresh and ready to go again. Also on Monday I got my new/used LOOK pedals in the mail and went home with the idea to just pop off the old pedals and put on the LOOK pedals and ride on the trainer for an hour.
So here goes the problem. I got the right pedal off without problem and put on the other pedal. I went over to the L pedal and it was stuck. Now there is stuck and there is mother******* stuck. I don't know what the last owner of the bike thought he was doing but a pedal does not need to be tightened to nuclear warhead specifications. anyway, by the time I was done trying the lug was stripped and I was down to vise grips. The only way to get it come off would be to take off the crank arm and lock the pedal in a vise. But do I own a crank arm removal tool - of course not!!!! 
Note To Self - "Buy some bike tools"
So, after pounding and trying to get the pedal off for 2 hours I finally gave in and went to bed. But unfortunately, sleep was out of the question. Have you ever had something on your mind that you cna't forget and are never able to completely fall asleep. Yeah, same here. I woke up as tired as I was when I fell asleep. After getting my stuff together I loaded the bike and headed to town. Too early to go to my bike shop, I headed to the gym. My workout was less than thrilling and I gave in after about 45 minutes and headed to work.
Once I had the bike at the shop, my bike pro took one look at the pedal and asked my what I used on the pedal. Looking down at the floor I admitted that I had used vise grips but did explain that the pedal was already messed up before I got to it. We pulled the crank arm off and tried to lock the pedal down in a vise to unscrew it. But nothing is that easy. The Speedplay pedals have a round shaft, so the vise would not hold. He seemed a little hesitant to ruin a pedal - but before we knew it we were at the grinder making a flat part on the shaft that the vise could hold on to. After about 45 minutes of work and pounding the pedal finally came off. He took a look at the threads and determined that the previous owner had probably tried to take the pedal off but was not informed about the reverse thread on the L side of the bike. therefore the pounding that he did was actually compressing the threads. He re-threaded the crank on on went my new LOOK pedal.
Today I got in 20 miles of hillwork on my old bike and tomorrow I have a 60 mile ride planned in the morning using my new bike. It should be quiet on the roads since everyone is going to be stuffing themselves and sleeping on the couch. Till next week - CIAO
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