Fri run in Indiana

went out for a morning run before a day of visiting Purdue (Friday). about 40 minutes, distance quite unknown. comfy but solid pace, with some slowing due to significant ice in some areas (running over a solidly iced highway bridge was interesting). probably ~25F out, maybe a little less. very relaxing.

Tuesday run

went out for a short but fast run at lunch. ~30 minutes, faster pace than usual. nice day, a bit overcast, but with temps up around 40F.

Sunday run + Monday trainer

went out for a run today, road conditions were not great for a ride. not very fast, as there was ice all over the WOD. still, a little more than 6 miles over 65 min. pretty windy on the way back, and then it started snowing pretty hard. but the snow quit after about 20 minutes. funky weather here, I guess.

and an addition: rode the trainer for 80 minutes with Amy at her house. A little Bourne Supremacy never hurt. He's going to do something clever--attack!

Fri swim

I really got cold in the pool today. Did 2000yds, got out and stood under the shower for a while. didn't get back in. maybe it's time to start wearing something other than a swimsuit. or maybe the pool will warm up. I didn't think I had gotten any skinnier. maybe it was just an off day.

yoga, a run, and spontaneity

Wed: yoga in the evening. good session.

Thurs: ran ~4.5 miles, maybe 40 minutes (didn't take the watch). 20F outside, but not that windy.

as I was out running today I saw a couple of kids rolling themselves down the hill and howling while doing it. very spontaneous and undeliberate. I got to thinking a bit about how we lose some of that as we age. I'm pretty deliberate about most things--breaking out of that doesn't often get much farther than leaving my watch or HRM off when I go out for a workout. True, I'm pretty flexible about most things, but that doesn't actually translate to spontaneous. I'm just open to change.

Anyway, I thought that it might be fun to be a little more spontaneous. True, it runs against the definition of "spontaneous" if it is planned, but having the germ of the idea in your brain is probably pretty important.

cold knees!

so on Tuesday I rode to work. low 30s F, a little sleet on the face but not cold so no big deal. by the time I rode home the WOD was pretty well snowed/iced over. the icey parts were no problem, but where people had walked on the snow and compressed certain areas (i.e. footprints) was really crap riding. man, I wish I had a cross bike. but I got home without any falling. man, my knees were cold! somehow the slush and water accumulates primarily on the knee area. I was a bit worried when I got home, but things seem to be all right. and I gave my bike some good TLC, which it needed by that point.

so I think there needs to be a wet weather corollary to the current 18F rule. and on Thursday it is supposed to be down to 14 or 15F in the morning, so I guess I'll be riding the trainer. erk.

recap for the week + long ride

so since monday I've been bad about keeping this training log. and I didn't ride too much during the week because of the snow on the W&OD. but I still got out some. so, in retrospective:

Wed: yoga, 75 min.

Fri: 35 min run at lunchtime, ~4 miles.
2400scy swim in the evening before heading up to the Bergmann's farm for Saturday.

Sunday: 60 miles on the W&OD, almost 4 hrs exactly. nice ride, found that I feel much better during and especially afterwards with better nutrition: half a bar or a gel every 45 minutes. practice and refine this. temp started at ~24F and was probably up to ~32F by the time I was getting back into Falls Church. and pretty much all of the snow is off the W&OD, so my riding will be back on track for next week.

Mon run

ran on the trails around work, 35 minutes, ~4 miles. it was 14F out and while I was warm, the skin on my front got a little chilly because I wasn't wearing anything windproof. need to find a cheap wind vest or something like that.

XC skiing! woohoo!

went XC skiing for 4 hours with my Carmie, my potential grad school advisor. pretty great way to spend a day, especially with new snow and 25F and sun streaming down on the Finger Lakes. definitely got to learn by doing a lot--much improved by the end of the day of skiing. worked on kicking and leaning forward and using the poles right, all of which contributed to a pretty functional ski.

so a little different than going for a long ride, but it'll have to do.

Thurs ride plus a little

rode to and from work, low 20s on the way to work. 30 miles. afterwards, went into the city for a 45 minute spin with Chelsea. nice way to stretch out the legs and warm them down a bit.

translation of spin jargon:
"sprint" means high cadence
"flat road" means easy pace
the out-of-the-saddle climbing, well, I'll just ignore that part.