Busy Bee, Banana in the hospital, and Bounding North

Busy as a bee over here! I've decided that it's a bit too ambitious to post daily (can you tell? I owe you like three posts already!), so I'm going to post periodically and at least weekly regarding training. The accountability will be there, just in bulk form.

This week in particular will be tres interesting, which is the extent of my French, even after too many years of study in high school and college. Anyway, two BIG challenges to training this week -- Banana and Plymouth.

First, Banana. My beloved bike. She went in to visit the great guys over at LoweRiders, my LBS, on Sunday to talk about the issues I've been having with the chain seizing up at the most inopportune moments...as in, when I'm going up super steep hills at blazing speeds like 4 mph.

Turns out there is an answer. I have chain suck. No, really, apparently that's a technical term. Without going completely into it, it seems that I've streeeeeeeetched out my chain with all these miles in the saddle and, as a result, it's not behaving properly when in my smallest chain ring.

Not only that, turns out that my cassette has been irrevocably bent out of joint during this process...slowly but surely. It "fits" the stretched chain, but needs to be replaced in order to accommodate a new chain.

And, frankly, this gives me a great deal of joy. Banana, bless her heart, has the original components on her -- Scimano Tiagra, to be exact. Yup, the group of components that are meant for "recreational use." Um...recreational use? Not exactly what I've been doing recently. Hmmm. Plus, these components (with the exception of the chain, which was replaced last year) have probably 5000 miles on them. I think we went beyond "recreational" a long time ago.

So, tonight I'm dropping her off to have a new Ultegra 12/25 cassette and chain put on. After the half iron race on July 1st, we're going to upgrade her chain rings as well, although I'm still debating whether I'll go for a two- or three-ring setup. I'm also going to upgrade the derailleurs, too. Because I love my bike. :)

Oh, yeah, and before I forget -- after MUCH wrangling and a horrible experience with an Ironman affiliated vendor, I finally received my new aerobars! I may or may not go into the tribulations that went on trying to get these. I sent a note to the owner/manager about my experience and am waiting for his reply. But, All3Sports came through for me perfectly and now I have my new bars! I'm in the process of getting them on the bike properly (the shims are not broad/thick enough to allow them to attach under the bar tape, so I'm going to re-tape the crossbar and try attaching them over the tape), but haven't tried them out yet.

So, this week's challenge, training without a bike. Does this mean I have to actually go back to a stationary bike??? Mis-er-able thought. Miserable!

Now for Bounding North. On Thursday, Mighty M's family has graciously invited me to travel with them up north to visit Plymouth Mass for a five day weekend. Wahoo! ROOOOOOAD TRIIIIIIIPP!!

Now, as a responsible little triathlete, I've already located the fitness club 2-miles away from the hotel, downloaded their pool schedule, and talked to their front desk about day passes. The sad part is that my bike training will suffer this week (which is a real bummer since I have a 100 mile ride next Sunday!), but the good news is that I will really be able to solidify my swim and run -- the run, in particular, which worries me come the half iron distance. Anyone run in Plymouth? I'd love to hear about good routes!

Okay, so time for some creative scheduling of sessions. I'm hoping that I can get at least one morning swim in each day and one late afternoon/evening run in each day. The latter will be hard, since I'm sure there will be dinners planned and other activities. Thankfully, M's family is exceedingly supportive of my training, so I don't think they'll mind if I slip out occasionally.

There you have it! Now, I'm back to getting through the bazillion things I have to complete before we take off. Goodness, this is a busy life! :)