Cracked

Well, I finally made it out to one of the weekday evening time trials on the lakefront. I'd told Kenny I'd bring him some leftover race numbers and pins, so I was committed at least to the ride out there and back. Once I was there I figured I may as well get in the extra 10 km anyway, so I inserted myself into the 39-rider line, inching forward every 30 seconds until it was finally my turn to go. Of course, I was on my regular road bike, so I was kind of riding "retro style." I wasn't inclined to kill myself on this TT, so I started out at a moderate speed with a plan to wait until the last couple of kilometers before putting the hammer down. Just as I was approaching the turn-around pylon I caught a couple of riders. I passed the first one before the turn, but almost ran into the second one halfway through it. Man, those triathletes sure turn slowly! Two miles before the finish the course goes over the Bayou St. John bridge, and just before I got there Brady came flying past me. I picked up the pace a notch and practically sprinted up the bridge, but after that he steadily pulled away. His time, the best of the evening, was a minute and a half faster than mine! After crossing the line, he was so toasted that he crashed while turning around. No real damage done, though.

So Thursday morning I headed out to the morning ride and was a little surprised to find that the wind direction and speed felt more like Fall than Summer. Once again, the ride got really fast, especially the first half of the way out. It was a pretty hard ride for me, and by the time I got home I was feeling like I'd been ridden hard and put up wet.

This morning I was still feeling pretty dragged out for some reason, and even the 20 mph pace of the Friday recovery ride sometimes seemed like a struggle. The day before I'd gotten a call from the Jeep dealership up in Iowa telling me that The Daughter's car has a cracked block. This was after we'd already replaced the radiator and a/c compressor and resurfaced the cylinder heads, so we've already put $2,600 into a 2002 car and this evening they tell me replacing the engine block would be another $3,600. The car's probably only worth $5,000, so I think we're going to have to pull the plug on this one. Anybody want to buy a nice Jeep Liberty with a cracked block? Oh, yeah, it's in Iowa City. Is it better to fix it and then sell it, or try and sell it as is to someone willing to deal with the engine repair?