Saturday Ice Cube

Let's see, nothing gets me out of bed faster than a brick on a Saturday morning when the temps are right at freezing. Woke up at 6 am and turned on the weather channel in hopes of seeing ice or snow or sleet or something that would get me out of riding my bike alone in 32 degree overcast weather. But alas, none of that... So I got out of bed, ate a quick grapenuts breakfast and started to pack up the car with the ton of clothes and stuff that are needed for a brick. I was scheduled to do a 15 mile bike followed by a 2 mile run.
I haven't ridden my tri bike in a long time, and I want to go fast this year so tri bike comes off the wall and on the car. Head out to lake lynn to do this route http://www.mapmytri.com/ride/united-states/nc/raleigh/862558470, let's see I had my thick running socks on, my shoes had their shoe covers, then I had on running tights, and bike shorts, a tight base layer running shirt, a fleece sweat shirt, and a wind breaker, ski gloves, wool skull cap and my helmet. I didn't think that was enough so I caked some Vaseline on my face to protect against the wind and a bunch o chap stick.
started off and ouch it was so cold it hurt, but then I got into some hills and warmed up a little, my fingers eventually felt good, but my toes never did warmup. The course was rolling with some flats and small climbs and one big climb. I say a big peloton at one point and tried to catch them, but just as I was about to get a draft they turned left where I needed to turn right. When I hit the big climb it was very painful, my legs were still cold and just starting to feel good on the bike. I had to stand on the initial part of the hill but that actually felt good. finally I was on the home stretch and something fell out of my pocket. I had to stop since I didn't know what it was and I really needed my car key, but it was just my chap stick. This was actually a good thing as I went back and got it and put more on, then ate a goo and started back. The rest of the ride was uneventful and I was happy when it was over.
Not a speedy transition as I had a bunch to take off, then a bunch to put on and I needed a bathroom break. Cindy was waiting for me, even though I was done early, so we chatted as I put away the bike and changed, then we hit the bathrooms and headed out. She was very happy to hear my coach changed my workout from 3 miles at 9:15 to 2 miles easy:-). The first part of the run was rough as I felt like my frozen legs were not giving at all, but after a half mile I felt good and we kept up a 10 min/mile pace. Felt like I could have done a couple more but decided to listen to the coach and finish up.
17 mile bike 1:04
2.6 mile run 26 mins
minutes to warmup after, 25 ( right after I got my white lightning :-) )

Thursday long run

It's been a long time since I've done one of these so I will try to remember how...
It was cold this morning, like 33 degrees, so I decided to sleep in and run at lunch. Lunch time came around and no sun, no warmup. It was about 40 degrees overcast, and no sun. the plan was 9 miles on flatter course with 4 mile tempo in the middle at better than 9:30 pace.
Started off nice and easy, didn't feel too bad but it was mostly down hill for the first 2 miles. Then I hit the greenway and picked up the pace to 9:10, the first part was false flat down so I knew I should keep the pace up since when I made the turn around to come back it would be false flat up. I did the first two miles at 9:10 pace then turned around and started back, amazingly at mile 3 I was still on 9:10 pace, but I was starting to suffer, I started counting down the mile markers and concentrating on the heavy metal playing in my ears. 3.5 miles still at 9:10, but I knew I could not hold it for another half mile, so I eased up for the next quarter and my ave pace dropped to 9:13, now I was at the final quarter mile and I knew I could make it so I picked the pace up and dropped my ave pace back down to 9:12. When the four miles was over I had to walk for a quarter to recover. Finally I started jogging and went back up the hill to work and did an extra bit around campus to get in a little more for a cool down since running up that hill didn't really count as a cool down. finished with 8.7 miles in 1 hour 27 minutes.

last run of the year

I ran on new years eve. it was 5.75 miles and two days after my 6 mile run. Sally was getting her hair done and Lilyan agreed to play at the park with her cousins so I had a couple hours free. I was hoping to do 8, but 2 miles into the run I knew it wasn't in my legs. It was an out and back run from the park to the river, then I was going to run along the river, it wasn't really a river but a draining canal, on the bike path. Since there was no traffic I could wear my mp3 player, and could finally relax without having to worry about traffic, time schedule, crazy kids needing to goto the bathroom, me having to goto the bathroom or really anything except when to turn around. As I said above I turned around a mile early to get 6 instead of 8, but other than that it was a wonderful run that I cut an additional .25 miles when my ankle gave me a shot of pain right at the end and I decided to just walk the final quarter mile as a cool down just to be safe.