Recovery, motivation, Coach Troy, Scott, Kona

I really don't like recovery weeks. It's harder for me (mentally) to train less than train more. I guess I worry that I'm losing fitness even though I understand the principle of periodization ~ that my body needs a recover period to adapt (get faster) to the stress I've been putting on it over the previous 3 weeks. Regardless, I'll be glad when this week is over.

I forgot bring my iPod to the last 10k I ran and did well enough, but I'm hoping that if I bring it this time and load it up with some super motivating music, it'll give me that extra edge to break 42 minutes. We'll see if it works.

I've got a little play in my rear wheel so I'll be dropping my bike by the shop today. I think it may be from doing that coach Troy video on the trainer. I never stand on the trainer and especially don't do sprints. Coach Troy had us doing both in "No Slackers Allowed" and now all the suddent I have this looseness in my rear wheel. Hmmmm. Because of that reason and because all the trainer riding has put a wide flat area on my Conti sew-up, I've decided that I'm going to ride my commuter road bike with it's cheapo clinchers and inexpensive tires on the trainer instead of my race bike.

I saw this article last night from way back in 05 in Triathlete magazine before Scott had a tri bike. I just LOVE the look of this CR1 with those bars. It's like a carbon Litespeed Saber or something ... very clean and light looking. What they’ve done as far as market share since 2005 has been very, very impressive. I think they we're tied with Trek for 3rd at Kona this year and three years ago they didn't even have a tri bike! Anyway, this got me thinking about going with a base bar / aerobar setup for the triathlon season this year. The one thing I'd disagree with is that it's difficult to get a 76 degree seat angle; with a saddle with long rails like the Fizik Arione tri + a zero degree offest seatpost it's easily attainable. For me, I like to a pretty powerful position, especially with the hilly courses I race, so 76 degrees is as steep as I'd want to go.

If I flirt with a certain time at Beach-2-Battleship this year, I'll be trying to find a Kona qualifier to race ASAP. If that race is a flat one like Arizona, you may see me move to a Plasma. If it's a rolling course like Louisville or Wisconsin, I'll probably keep the same light-weight setup I have now.