Today's plan was a brick to make up for the lameness of yesterday's run. But I got home from school, looked a my gear, and just felt tired. So I'm taking the day off. I feel guilty, even though I know I shouldn't. It bugs me to no end when I know I ought to work out, but I'm not feeling it at all. I'll end up burning out if I'm not careful. Days like today make me respect Ironman triathletes even more. So I could spend 500 words dwelling on my two days of bleh, or I could move on.
MOVING ON...
I have once again mended something! After being inspired by Tri Cook's hydration set-up and being tired of shoving a third water bottle in my jersey pocket, I went to Amazon and did some shopping around. I ended up with a Minora Rear-Mount Saddle bracket and a Cheap Basic Water Bottle Cage. After little fussing, almost no cursing, and never saying the magic words, "How hard could it be? Really?" I was able to get that bad boy on there.
I moved my spare bag out of the way for mounting.
At first it stuck right up the back of the seat. Luckily I am very manly and strong so I bent it down veeery slightly.
Ahhhhh!
I also squeezed the cage around the bottle to get the fit nice and tight.
I'm hoping this will prevent bottle rockets.
Pew pew!
I will report back after my first ride how well this set-up works. I'm hoping I can get the bottle in there tight enough that I won't go flying when I hit a bump. And bumps we got plenty of here in Hawaii.
Tomorrow is a swim/run day. Depending on how I feel after school it might become a swim/brick day to make up for being covered in weak sauce today.
Today was supposed to be a swim. Things got in the way that were nobody's fault. So it was a rest day instead, which I suppose I could use. But its hard to take a rest day on a day when I'm geeked up for a long session of pain in the pool. So the weekend, instead of looking like long ride Saturday, long run Sunday, suddenly has become early long swim Saturday, early afternoon long run Saturday, long ride Sunday. Why not ride after my swim Saturday? Because I'm planning 50 miles, which will take a tad over three hours. And I don't want to do that after a swim. So instead I Gear Fiddled. Gear Fiddling is the fifth event of triathlon. (The fourth is transitions, and the sixth is not puking after completing a triathlon and then consuming perhaps too many of the post-race bagels/bananas/oranges/sugary snacks they always provide.) Today's Gear Fiddling was replacing my seat with a new one, which you all bought for me if you don't remember. I'd been meaning to get around to this since the seat came in the mail last week so I got off the couch and actually did it. And it was easier than I thought. I think it was because I ignored the advice of the ancient philosopher Clarksonius and his First Rule of Fixing Anything and didn't once say, "How hard could this be? Really?" And when it wasn't that hard, I may have reacted in my head like this:
On to fiddling! As I mentioned, the switch was rather easy. Here, you see my old seat compared side-by-side with the new one: And here are some fancy shots of the new one by itself, all mounted and everything: (Those of you with sharp eyes, yes, you can see a Wall-E bank, a Final Fantasy XIII Special Edition Guide, and a Pirates of the Caribbean DVD player which is plugged in to nothing in that bottom picture. However, did you notice the top of a Big Daddy action figure in the lower-most corner?)
Now the trick is to see how well I guessed at the angle and forward/backward positioning of the seat. This will lead to the Forever Adjusting mentioned in this post's title. Nothing adjustable is every quite right. Quite perfect. It always feels like there is another millimeter one way or another something can go that would make it juuuuuust a little more comfortable, a tensy bit more aero, ever so slightly more power-productive. So now begins that journey. I'll be sure to let you know how comfortable (or not) the new seat is after it gets ridden on. Till then, I MENDED SOMETHING!!!
