Getting Off on the Wrong Foot.

 I've done this enough times that you'd think I'd have it all figured out by now.

You'd be wrong.

I began setting up my bike the night I arrived, in preparation for the next day's workout. Furniture was moved around and all of the components were positioned so that I could roll right out of bed and be sweating in no time.

Except I wasn't.

I woke up and dutifully donned my kit, then fired up the computer. I logged onto Zwift and immediately was confronted with a 30 minute update, which eventually grew to 45 minutes as the internet connection slowed. I usually update my computer as much as possible while at home to avoid this, but this time around I plain forgot.

No matter, I'll just pull out my Garmin to track the workout and watch an old Eddy Merckx movie. As I spun my crank backwards to wake up the power meter, the drivetrain sounded funny. I quickly checked the alignment of the drivetrain, only to discover I had routed the chain through the rear derailleur wrong. It took a few minutes to remove the chain and rethread it properly. Ever strap on a guitar and strum a mighty power chord, only to break a couple strings? That's pretty much what happened to my chain. The quick link exploded. I guess after a couple trips and a lot of miles on the trainer, it decided enough was enough. I could have just replaced the quick link, but instead I opted to replace the entire chain. So, another ten minutes wasted. Then a bit more fiddling with the rear derailleur alignment, and I was all set.

The upside to al of the delays was that I didn't have to wait long for the update to complete, and I was on Zwift again. The downside was my time for riding had been cut in half. So, as I often do, I split the workout and overdid it during both sessions out of frustration. I will likely feel the effects of my stupidity for weeks.

No matter. The path I'm on will likely lead to burnout anyway. I was hoping my Training Peaks squiggly lines would start leveling out a bit, but they keep climbing. If this continues, I'll cook myself in spectacular fashion before this trip is over.

Time to back off to something more sustainable.No need to do everything wrong at once. I have plenty of time to screw up.

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