Many towns have their claim to fame and local big business headquarters. For the Twin Cities, those headquarters include Target, 3M, and Hed. Being the bike fanatic that I am, I paid Hed a visit to have my race wheels checked out and to catch a glimpse of their HQ.

I had emailed Hed a couple days ago and asked if it would be alright to stop in and have my wheelsets checked out. You see, when I swap out my training wheels for my race wheels, I have to recenter my brakes so they sit in the middle of the rim. I figured for sure that the dishing was off on one of the wheelsets but Hed employee, Andy, checked out my wheels and insured that both sets were dished properly and extremely true. He came to the conclusion that when I put on my race wheels and have to open the brake quick release to accommodate the wider rim, that the quick release must open more quickly on one side than on the other. Thus, when braking with the quick release open, one pad hits before the other. When I came home, I popped my bike on the stand and sure enough this seems to be the case. Mystery solved! Thanks Andy!

But I digress. Seeing the inside of Hed HQ was a real treat. The folks there were all very down to earth and very polite, and my friend and I even saw the long, silver-haired, aerodynamic guru, Steve Hed, himself walking around the shop (I didn’t stop and bother him as he looked to be rather busy). We admired the dozens and dozens of wheels that were lying around. There was carbon EVERYWHERE!!! I was like a kid in a toy store and did my best to keep my drool to myself. Annie Hed (wife of Steve), was obviously concerned about the pool of drool I was making on her floor, and she stopped over and chatted with us for a bit. We talked and she took the time to explain their line up of different wheels and how each set differed from the others. We got to ask questions and she entertained them all. We then went on to talking about various local and national bike shops, about Floyd and wondering what would become of him, and about how Levi was doing in Deutchland Tour. She’s a very cool, down to earth kind of gal. You’d never guess that her company makes and produces wheels for some of the fastest folks on the planet, including none other than Lance.

I’m sure most folks are thinking to themselves, “Who? What? Huh?!” But for a geeked out bike guy like me, the whole experience was better than being front row on the red carpet at a Hollywood premiere. My hats off to the Hed’s for their great products and customer service. Supporting a local business never felt so good. :)

There’s really no other way to put this, so I’ll just outright say it. I’m an idiot. Somehow, back before I left for my honeymoon I counted up the weeks to Wisconsin and decided that once I got back, I’d have two, four week base blocks that I could fit in before my three week taper. Yeeeeaahhhhh - not so much. There wasn’t eleven weeks of training post honeymoon, only nine. NINE?! Ugh. That’s two full weeks that I miscounted! :(

Of course, I didn’t realize this until yesterday where I’m starting my needed recovery week. But after this week, I only have two more weeks to play with before I should start tapering. And with most plans saying there should be a recovery week between your last base block and your taper, that really only leaves one full week left. So as I was saying, I’m an idiot. I suppose that’s what I get for not writing my plan down on paper this year. I followed my self-written plan the first year to a T. Last year, I was a little more relaxed but still wrote everything down. This year, I just have kind of glanced at a calendar to figure out where I was and winged my hours and workouts week to week.

I’m not really worried about not being ready. (Barring unforeseen catastrophe on race day,) I know that I have the fitness to see me through the finish at Wisconsin. But it was more of a big surprise to me thinking that I had another month before I tapered, but really only having two weeks! In panic mode, I sought the advice of some people and have worked out what I’ll do from here on out. Probably my biggest loss will be that I don’t have that extra two weeks to continue my diet and lose potentially another four pounds. Oh well. I’ll continue to eat well and I’ll weigh in at whatever I weigh in at.

So, words to the wise: WRITE YOUR TRAINING PLANS DOWN and don’t pull a bone head move like me!