Happy Tuesday

Here I go again- force the positive attitude. I am feeling decent today although I do not care to be at work, I would rather be in the pool or somewhere else.

Got my bike back yesterday, I am happy, it looks great and clean, but I feel like a jerk.

Like I said yesterday I was distraught about my bike not being ready so I emailed the shop owner. Here is the basic outline of my email:

I. Love the shop and all the great things that they do for me.
II. Details of what happened when i dropped my bike off.
III. Details of (not) picking my bike up.
IV.How this effects my monetarily.
V. The implications that I am not as important as the big ticket customers.
VI. Not having my bike ready at the time you tell me to be there is like breaking your word.
VII. Past problems I have not said anything about because they have always taken care of them on the spot (as an example of how great they are).

About three hours after I emailed the shop owner, one of the guys (the same one I dealt with last week and weekend) called me at work to let me know that my bike was ready. He was very short and not very friendly. He and most of the others are usually very friendly even small talking before getting to business, not today.

About an hour later i got a call from the shop owner apologizing for the problem and telling my that it upset him tahat they even promised my bike to be ready over the weekend as they are not supposed to do that. He also said that without going into details that he did discuss ME and the problem with the guys. He said the guys described me as more of a friend than a regular customer and told him that they had already dropped the $50 charge for changing the bars and were only billing me for the tune up, bar tape, and bar tapping because of my relationship with them. I had no idea there was a $50 charge to change the bars to begin with. They must have already made the decision when they gave me the quote (I also though that was an absurd amount as I can change them and put the shifter back on in the same amount of time it takes me to type this thought).

After i got this email I realized why the guy had been short with me.

When I went to pick up the bike he was not as short, but not as friendly as usual and was clearly avoiding eye contact. In the end I spent $100 to get a tune up (sadly that was already ear marked for a wetsuit), make four trips to the shop, and apparently upset someone I value. I got my bike back squeaky clean but felt like an asshole. Not something I meant to do. I would never want to be on the wrong foot with my bike shop, it strikes me that no triathlete can really afford to not have a good LBS or mechanic in their pocket.

Despite the 90 minutes of driving back and forth to the bike shop i still made it home in time for some speed work in the pool. I felt hard which I LOVE. It also made it clear to me that i still need work as my time has not changed that much from my last time trial in February; I have a new time trial this week so i will have a definitive answer. Today is a 30 mile ride/5 mile run brick. I knew i had a brick today but was surprised when i saw the distance. Oddly now that I am preparing for an international distance event i have a workout of this length, but had none during HIM training. Oh Well.

What are your plans today?