The Post Where Janie Becomes Intimately Acquainted With Shane West

December has been the month o' the bike for Geek. For all of December I tried to get on the bike for 10 miles every other day. Not really to improve my cycling fitness, but to get my butt accustomed to being on the bike.

A pain in my @ss -- figuratively and literally.

I bought my bike in November, immediately after registering for IMFL. I wanted to get it as soon as possible knowing the bike would be my nemesis. (Putting over a hundred miles on it this month has just reinforced that opinion).

I did a lot of research, got some experienced tri-ers to help me out, and decided to buy a road bike rather than a tri-bike. It was much less expensive, and since I plan to only do one Ironman I didn't want to put thousands of dollars in that one purchase.

So I ended up buying a carbon frame road bike. I outfitted it with aerobars, got clipless shoes & pedals, and a trainer (for riding indoors).  All for the bargain price of about $1700. (Actually that really is a bargain. Distance triathlons are not an inexpensive sport.)

So here's my bike:

Don't have my clip-on shoes, so no actual riding.

 What I like most about it is that it is so light I can lift it with one hand:

It really is amazingly light

But what does all of this have to do with Shane West?

In case you don't know (shame on you!), Shane West is a gorgeous actor, currently staring in the newest version of Nikita.  He's my writing muse -- the character I have in my head when I write my romantic suspense novels. 

Hottie Hot-Hot - Shane West

 I heart Shane West so much. 

And I've decided to name my bike Shane West. Because if I'm going to ride thousands of miles over the next 10 months, I'd like to be able to say really inappropriate things like:

I hopped on Shane West and took him for a nice ride today.
Shane West has made me sore in some pretty unmentionable places.
I spent three hours on Shane West this morning.

I'm already thrilled at the thought of it. Um, being able to say those things, not ride all those miles (about 3000miles are in my current training plan)

So here's to Shane West -- may we always be good to each other.