Merlin Monday. My motivation...

has finally returned. I signed up for the Leadville 100 bike lottery. They announce the entrants on February 28th so until then I will prepare to race a couple of 50 mile runs and also build my base back on the bike before the beginning of my build... to Leadville (I ran out of B words). I do owe this spike in motivation to one of my athletes. He tipped me last week with a Merlin Extralight fitted with Campy Chorus 10 speed. Too generous (which is the kind of guy he is) in my opinion but he did just guarantee a life time of good karma and also my playing domestique for his training leading up to Ironman next year. The irony (or coincidence... I still can't tell those two apart correctly) is that I woke up in the middle of the night with the worst sore throat of my life. I woke up because my throat was swollen so much I couldn't breath, my sinuses are also sealed completely. So... I prescribed myself the best remedy that I know of and I put on 3 layers of thermal gear and exercised and sweated (and drank water). 1:04 with 1649 feet of climbing. By the end my sinuses were clear and the swelling in my throat was gone. This won't cure me, but it definitely made me feel a thousand times better.

Here are a few pics... I may or may not lower the front end. It's quite comfy with that stack height and flipped stem! One smart thing would be to get my road position a little closer to my MTB position though.