How many Ben’s does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Thursday I’m leaving for Dallas to meet up with Aaron Scheidies. We’re going to break a world record, and come home happy. I’m really excited.

The Lara Brown visit continues to teach me about training opportunities that I was unaware of. Today I went to Eastside Multisport which is next door to the Microsoft campus in Redmond. The setup is fundamentally the same as Seattle Multisport: eight Computrainers set up around a TV, stereo system, and a projection screen. The difference, is that SMS is in the back of an old transmission repair shop, and ESMS is in the back of a really nice facility with a massage room in the front. Both are tough to find from the street, but where SMS has a 8.5×11 in white sheet of paper with the name on it in the window, ESMS has an actual sign. The 10 year old tv at SMS is up against ESMS’s 42 inch plasma. What’s not different, is that both places are a great place to get a quality workout in.

I showed up to ESMS this morning, put my bike on the trainer, and then realized that I had left my shoes drying in front of the fire place. Lara and Cindy (the woman running ESMS) are both married to guys named Ben, which was a little confusing to me at first, and only became more so as the conversation repeatedly referred to “my Ben”. Well, Cindy’s Ben had left his bike shoes at ESMS, and while they fit well enough, he uses Look pedals; I use Shimano. I went to switch pedals from his bike to mine, but discovered that my 6mm wrench wouldn’t fit his pedals, they take an 8mm. There was no 8mm around, but Lara offered to get her Ben to bring a wrench form their house (about 2 miles away).

By 7:45 I was on my bike with Cindy’s Ben’s Shoes and pedals, all thanks to the wrench from Lara’s Ben. So my question for the day is this: “How many Ben’s does it take to do a bike workout?”

After the workout I was running late to class. I had 20 minutes to get from Redmond to Seattle, then park, and run across campus. I made it on-time, but I was sweating profusely and I feel really sorry for the girl sitting next to me. Maybe my pheromones made her day, but my guess is she was counting the seconds for class to end. [Sorry, left handed girl. 🙂] (On a strange side note, the girl was wearing the same black TYR warm-up pants I always wear, and a Northface jacket just like mine, only in black. Is lack of style a Seattle thing?)

Other great news this week, Loren’s foot got him through his last race of the season, just a week after I saw him with a gaping hole from a embedded rock he picked up on the swim exit of Tinley’s.. Congratulations Loren! I can tell he’s in his off season because he’s already calling me to share stories of his daughter farting, and asking me to work on my eyebrow curl. Brian Davis has been MIA since he bought a new bike. I’m getting lonely at swim practice, and I’ve actually seen more of his wife than of him. I figured he was just cycling a lot, but then last night he called to say he’s blown his knee out. It’s either the saddle height or the cleat placement, but it sounds like before he gets back on the bike Marijana (his wife) needs to give him some TLC. [Marijana, TLC is NOT similar to BLT! Keep that kid off the bacon greese!]