Monday, April 1, 2013

New bikes are awesome

I have decided that I am giving up triathlon and going back to golf.

S - 27,100 yards
B - 225.1 miles
R - 47.6 miles

Time - 25.1 hours

Just kidding, it's April 1st!

This week was a pretty good one; the only thing that stands out as a negative is missing a swim workout on Friday evening.  Unfortunately, the pool was closed and I still had to run as well so the swim took the backseat.  It's only really sad because it would have kept me over the 30k per week that I've been around practically the whole year.  #swimmerproblems

On the swimming note, Friday morning actually brought a nice surprise.  Since there was no MCAC masters workout Jenny brought me along with her to Charlotte Latin where we met Bill Davis and Jeff Murray for a bunch of hundreds.  The plan was for those speedsters to do 30x100 as (10x100 on 1:30 holding 1:10s, 10x100 on 1:10 holding AFAP, 10x100 on 1:20 maintaining).  I was skeptical of this workout given that the intervals were a bit intimidating but I made my way through the first 10 relatively smoothly (albeit slowly).  The first 100 of the second set I came in at 1:08/1:09 and had a choice to make (a choice that many swimmers have to make):

Choice A) Go on the 1:10 and struggle to make 2-3 of these 100s before getting frustrated and having to take a time out, which makes one even more frustrated.

Choice B) Adjust the interval to something challenging but potentially doable

I chose option B, adjusting my plan to do as many as I could on a 1:15 send-off.  The most I'd ever done on that interval was roughly 5, but it was in the middle of a workout usually so I was unsure of how many I could actually bang out in this fashion.  The first five were hard but then they just kind of stayed the same and 20 of them came and went.

So, taking a negative and turning it into a positive; a lot of people (myself included) get mentally frustrated by barely making an interval.  It's normal. 1:08 pace was a bit much to try and push while only getting a breath or two at the wall. 1:09-1:10 pace was push-able while getting 2-3 breaths at the wall.

Another cool thing that happened this week was getting my P5 finished on Friday night with mucho help from Steve.  This was a desired thing for me because it's a freakin' awesome bike but discovering something with my Klein galvanized the get-it-done-tonight mentality...


Now, I don't have to be an expert to assume that is a crack in the carbon seat-stay.  There are only two carbon components on this bike: the fork and the seatstays.


Now, I have no idea this has been here; I've known that there was a fairly significant scratch on the left seat-stay but this is the first I've seen of a true "crack." The ride quality of the bike has been particularly awful but I was sure it was just the comparison to the S5 that had me feeling down about the ol' steed.  Well, needless to say I will never ride this bike again in its current condition.  It is a sad, sad day.

Now, at some point in the near future, I will need a new road bike.  #firstworldproblems

But let me leave you on a more awesome note; I am looking forward to breaking in this bad boy at White Lake Half next weekend!




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