It's not my fault . . .

Every year the trainer seems to be a little more mentally challenging to ride.

 It was a brutally cold weekend.  I attempted to get out, but each time I'd go outside and the -25 Celcius degree cold air would hit my throat and lungs I'd begin into an uncontrollable coughing fit.  Despite feeling so much better, it looks like I am still not 100% over The Most Horrible Flu Ever. 

So, I ended up riding the trainer for two out of three days, the third day I hit the weights and StairMaster (not to be confused with the He-Man, Master of the Universe).  I sent back my PowerTap in December.  I suspected the calibration was off on it as it seemed to be reading my power output higher than my actual perceived effort.  Cyclops techs re-calibrated it, gave it a good going over and sent it back.  Just got it back and my suspicions were correct - it's feels much more difficult to ride in my zones than before.  I should have left 'well enough' alone. 

It makes me wonder how long it's been a bit off?  Maybe all last winter I assumed (which makes an ass out of me) that I was in my zones and actually wasn't, thus not getting the benefits I should have gotten from all that riding.  Might explain some of my early season lack of fitness.  I'm going to go ahead and blame the PowerTap for my entire season lack of fitness - ha, a scapegoat.  It really wasn't my fault.  I'm blaming my over-weightness, lack of racing, lack of motivation, poor fathering and husbandry skills, my lack of fashion, falling arches, hair growing on my ear lobes, troubles in the Middle East and the housing market on the un-calibrated PowerTap.  Makes sense to me.