COLD Training Weekend

Bundled up at the river with my partner in training crime - Sarah.
Photo silliness courtesy of Ellen.

It's been a particularly mild winter here in Georgia but we finally got an arctic blast this weekend. My training partners had already made plans to meet for a 50 mile ride in Cartersville so I got up to truck it out of town for 80 miles. I already didn't feel good about the temps but seeing 18 wheelers on the highway getting blown out of their lanes really gave me pause. When I arrived at the cycling park the only car there belonged to Monika. I jumped in her car and we agreed this was a stupid idea so we hopped back in our cars and headed back into town to ride the computrainer at Cadence Bikes. I am beginning to enjoy riding my trainer A LOT and putting me on a computrainer riding an ironman course really gets me excited. Last week was 40 miles on the IM Canada course and this week was 50 miles on the IM Germany course. I almost hit my goal of averaging 18 mph - next time.


So while I can handle riding a trainer for several hours - I still haven't brought myself around to running a lot of miles on a treadmill. So I bundled up for a late morning run at the river. I met up with Jo, Cameron, and Sarah and we quickly warmed up. I'm trying out this new thing - running fast. Coach Mary gave me an LT test this week where I had to run all out for 3 miles. I didn't look at my watch the entire time since I didn't want to see what I was doing and was shocked to see that I finished in 25:27 - something I would have never guessed possible. So now I want to do a few bursts to see how fast I can go. Obviously I'm not targeting a fast run for IM but I'm having fun playing around seeing how fast I can go for short bursts. 7:45 avg for 1.5 miles yesterday! I'm starting to have more confidence in my running ability than I have in the past.


So all in all - feeling strong and confident in my training at this point. No low blood sugar episodes either - booyah! I know to relish this feeling as it won't last. It's inevitable to have ups and downs in a long training season but today - I'm feeling good!