Paradise Regained (Part 2 of 2: Moving Forward)

Ohh Jesus! I left the stove on AGAIN!!!

Well, much as I alluded to in part 1, I spent the last week catching back up on life and getting back in my mojo after Augusta. I had plenty of house work (laundry, sigh) and projects (stripping the paint off my CR-1, building a new computer) to keep me busy, so I had a very productive week.

Oh who am I kidding, I loaded up Diablo 3 and grinded my monk to lvl 60 while imbibing in a few too many Bloody Mary's and having french fries or tex mex every night. Hey, we all have our own special way to recuperate... right? Mine just happens to be mindlessly clicking a mouse. R&R at it's finest. 

Mooove over tri training!

The good news is that the break did what it was intended to do. About Friday afternoon I had the urge to get out and get a workout in (not enough urge to get me up and moving though :P ) and re-lighting the fire is really what these breaks are best for, besides letting the body get back to 100% of course. Preemptively fighting "burnout" is probably the only good way to succeed at it, especially after (like me) you've had a bad race. Here I'll try to outline what the future has in store for me.

Diagnose what needs work
Easy first step. My run is in need of an overhaul. 25-30 mile weeks (I was hitting around 100-110mi/months) just isn't enough to get things down into the time range I'd like to be in. The next couple of months I'll be knocking back my bike and swim training to about 2x a week (each) and increase both the number of runs per week and the total amount of time running (albeit not quickly) until I get to the 50ish mpw range. At that point we'll be re-evaluating where things are and how to proceed. I might even try one of those nifty 100 runs 100 days type challenges, just to stay motivated.

Next on the list (and farther down the road) is the swim. I improved a lot last year in this, but there is still plenty of room to work. I had a 6:5x / 500m the last time I tested,  I would really like to get that down closer to under 6:20. I think I have some low hanging fruit still in my form (and a lot in my flip turns) so... with a little help this one should be fixable. Also, it would probably be a boon for me to spend a bit more time practicing in open water.

On the bike, 300w FTP has been something I would love to hit before 2014 rolls around... although it'll probably have to wait. I'd be more excited to be able to hold higher watts (230ish) for my 30+ mile rides though. I also need to continue to adapt to my position... I had some lingering hand numbness and a little shoulder pain after Augusta, which I assume is due to the position.

Continue to work on my projects
As we speak my CR-1 is being Carbo-lifted. I may end up doing a review on the product, and will certainly write something up on my "experience" with it (and the bike) at some point. I will say that SCOTT is very liberal with their paint application. The area's that are painted white are an absolute nightmare to try to get down without sanding, which I have been forced to do sadly.

Trust me, you don't want to see the Scott right now.

I also just bought an older (2004ish) Caad8 to build up for the winter and possibly some crits next year. It's also going to get stripped down, albeit it should be much easier (since it's aluminum) than the Scott. Now the question is what to kit it out with. (on the cheap) I could probably piece together some older 105-Ultegra pretty cheap, but I've been reading some great reviews about this stuff.

At $256 (group buy) it's hard to imagine a better deal for a semi-complete group.

Microshift is what team Exergy uses (Felt has also started speccing bikes with it, and Vision's new component lineup is as well) and it certainly seems to get the job done. The price is right as well, and if you don't mind downstepping to the "White" (confusing since it comes in different colors) group then you can save even more. That's pretty tempting, especially since I've already got a spare crank sitting around. I have been looking for an excuse to try some of this out for a while...looks like I finally got one.

And of course there is this little project. I'm still just getting my feet wet with my blogging, with plenty to learn still ahead of me. The good part is that I really enjoy doing this, so it has a good chance to only get better with time. (Like fine Wine)


So, there we go. I'll be back with some more updates! Stay tuned and feel free to comment away.

-Christopher Morelock