Monday, July 16, 2012

Worries

It's amazing how you can take one relatively adaptable athlete, add Ironman training, get a little less than optimal sleep, and mix in one small problem and it becomes a world crisis.

Case in point: Last week, I dropped my bike off at the shop to have a Quarq power meter installed.  For a number of reasons I decided to switch to Quarq, the biggest being that now I can switch wheels without losing my ability to ride with power.  Anyway, I was supposed to get the bike back that night so that I could do my scheduled ride.  The shop called me in the afternoon to tell me my derailleur was not compatible with the crank and they didn't have one in stock that was...it would be an extra day to get one.

OK, adapt and overcome. *breath*  Email coach and ask permission to move the bike to the next day.

Done, relax.

The next day I waited anxiously for the call that my bike was ready.  When it came, I bolted out of my meeting and raced to the shop. Where they had trouble synching the Quarq with my Garmin (you need a "head unit" to read the data and my Garmin was the intended unit).  The guy tried a few things, played with the battery, and suggested I go home and update my Garmin software and then it should work.

Insert 90 minutes of frustration at home as I update software, do a hard reboot on the Garmin, read numerous online forums, and finally give up in frustration because nothing I try will get my Quarq to show up as operational.

I'm fairly sure if you saw me that night, you'd have thought someone had died, it was such a world crisis to me at that moment.  I had to remind myself, you can still RIDE the bike this weekend for your big workouts, you will live if you don't have power because the Quarq needs replacing.

On Friday I went back to the shop yet again to bring them the bike and ask that they sort out the problem.  That afternoon they called me back - all synched up and working fine.  What was the problem?  A dead battery in the Quarq.

*drops dead*

I stressed all night and day over THAT?!

And this is why I need to eat and sleep enough during heavy training...it's far too easy to let stress take over my life otherwise!  All's well that ends well and my weekend workouts were fabulous- more about them in the next post though!

6 comments:

RockStarTri said...

I've gone through a bunch of Quarq challenges. As a power geek (2xquarq, 1xPT, 1xCT), I've found that Quarq support is generally ok (but it was better before SRAM bought them)but the bike shop should have checked that first (second is the magnet which triggers it to start). Sometimes, though, the units misbehave - I've learned too much about Garmins and power meters.

PS: I don't understand the derailleur issue unless the wrong thing was ordered. Also, it takes about 20 minutes to install one so I don't get the "day" issue.

Molly said...

They didn't have the right derailleur in stock so it had to be ordered, hence the extra day. My existing derailleur turned out to not be playing nicely with the Quarq once it was installed.

Anonymous said...

Yes! I go through similar issues (not with a Quarq...cuz..ya know...I don't have one) but I'll be going along just fine, dealing with problems as they pop up and then that one issue pops up. That proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back and you'd think my world was ending. And it's ALWAYS something I blow out of proportion. Glad to know I'm not alone in such nonsense!

Katie said...

ugh. I recognize this feeling! been there, babes. grrr.

Meredith said...

That seems weird that they didn't check that first. But I totally get the stress all of it. We plan in advance so that everything goes the way it's scheduled to. When the boat gets rocked, it's stressful whether it "should" be or not. Glad to hear it all got worked out.

Betsy said...

I've had technology stress me out more than once. For some reason we're trained to believe that if we don't have data the workout didn't happen even though some of my best work probably comes when I'm "naked".