Woopsie

Have I really been away for three months? Looks like it. Who knew the off-season would mean off from blogging, too. Without any further delay, let's get back into it.

The biggest story has been my new bike. Back in October I was coming down the last big hill of my 42-mile ride (at 40 mph, natch) when I felt my back wheel rubbing the brakes. I stopped and found what I thought was a broken spoke. Turns out the spoke had pulled a chunk out of the rear wheel. I was pretty happy the wheel didn't do something silly like disintegrate on me during that descent! I took it easy the rest of the way home and all was well. I ended up getting a 2010 Motobecane Grand Sprint. It wasn't my first choice but the real world of my finances intruded on my dream so affordability won out. The Grand Sprint was my second choice, though, so don't get me wrong and think that I'm unhappy. Ultegra derailleurs and shifters, great brakes, carbon stays, and a heckuva lot lighter than my previous 14-speed? Yeah, I'm a happy guy. Oh, and modern gear ratios including an 11-28 cassette. I can now tackle some steep hills that I couldn't go up before and I don't even have compact cranks (yet).

On the running front, I did reach the last of my 2009 goals, which was to run a 5k under 30 minutes. I did that Thanksgiving morning. Now I'm working on getting my long runs longer and faster. I have a vague goal of doing a 10k under 60 minutes by the end of this year. I don't know how do-able that is but I'm keeping it in mind as I train.

I haven't been in a swimming pool since my last triathlon in October. I wanted to give my shoulders a rest and focus on burning some fat on the bike and the run. The problem is, now that I'm ready to go back into the water, my pool is closed and I'm not sure when it's going to re-open. My next tri, the IronBruin in March, is less than two months away so I really hope I can get in a pool soon.

There, all caught up-ish. No more excuses to not post.