Day 1: Building a new motor.

The time has finally arrived. My test results returned with nearly all positive improvements (some very big ones.) and my mood/energy levels have returned, so with the doctors OK I set my alarm for 5a.m. and had one celebratory drink of Yamazaki 18year Japanese Whisky before my triumphant return to training.

5a.m. rolled around and I was startled awake by my alarm. After hitting snooze three times I finally managed to roll out of bed around 5:20. I strode into my newly updated pain cave and fired up Zwift, eager to get on the island and get some miles in my legs. I'd show these avatars I still had it.

I started out with a nice warmup... really spinning the legs. It felt a little tougher than I remembered, so I shifted down and kept up the good work, running around 140watts.  Soon however, due both to my own relentless competitiveness and coaxing from Zwift, I settled in to do some work. A climb you say... just what I needed to test myself. Polka dot jersey here I come.

I start my ascent and shift into a big gear and launch off. 100m in the cold truth hits me... I'm not going to be first to the top. Then the Mike Tyson right hook gets me... I'm not going to be 25th to the top. 26...27... Mercifully the climb ends and I take the 31st fastest time up. I immediately drop out of my big ring and spend the next couple of minutes just trying not to vomit."Close the Gap" pops up an ad-infinitive number of times in the next few minutes, and more often than not, I do not close that gap.

Finally, in what seems like an eternity of suffering but in all actuality was no more than 30 minutes... I think I've had enough for the first day. I did some decent work, a solid go round, now to just check my average watts for the ride and see how I did. I'm sure I lost a lot, but pfft... I'm healthy again!

Avg. Watts - 156
Avg. MPH - 16.5

Sheesh... at least I probably broke a record on my max watts, I did a serious sprint!

Max. Watts - 706

I shakily unclip and nearly topple over getting off my bike, my legs an unfamiliar hairy lump of jelly. For a moment after both my Joule and Zwift prompt me to save my workout, I consider deleting them. This isn't me... is it? Of course I have my moment of clarity and save both.

Of course it isn't me in the sense of the triathlete who had last saved a file to poweragent.  That person in gone, for better or for worse, and can never be again. I say for better or worse, but I look for it to be for the better... that person wasn't smart, believed he could push through anything and that more was always the answer. I hope this new, blank slate I've been gifted has the intelligence to mix with that determination and create something better. So I'll be back on my bike today, and tomorrow, and probably not the day after (rest days you know) but then I'll be back again... and I'll take my beatings and put in my time and then...maybe I'll look back at those old power files and laugh. That's my goal anyways.


Thanks for reading! Regardless of anything else, it's good to back in the saddle.

-Christopher Morelock