I hate you Old Man Winter!

I am SO done with the winter.... can't ride outdoors, it's hard and COLD (and sometimes dangerous) to run out there and most of all I keep getting sick... dammit!!!

I am fighting this nasty cold right now which has forced me to stop training for 4 days in a row. Plus my family has been pretty sick too. So if one doesn't get it, the other one will and the one who didn't get it initially might get it because the other one has it!! (I just read that again and I was like.. wtf!) Anyway, you get the point.

Thing is too, St. Louis weather can be very unpredictable.. one day is in the 70s and the very next day it'll drop 40 degrees and it's in the 30s! So yeah, no wonder why people get sick. Wherever you go, grocery store, work, any store in general you hear -or see- people coughing the freaking lungs off. Oh, and we're getting some snow tonight... great!

Ok, I guess I bitched enough... but unfortunately I don't have much else to say at this point. At least it's Friday. Tomorrow I'm getting back into the training mood and I'm excited, it's crazy how training becomes part of you eh?. I'm scheduled to do a reverse brick, which I've never done, but I think should be cool. 30min moderate run, immediately followed by 1hr spinning class. Coach wants me to do this in order for me to become a better and stronger biker.... so anything that will improve my weakest leg, I'll try! Sunday I'm doing a recovery run and a swim.

Enjoy your weekend amigos!

PC

Valentine's boy...

...yup, that's me... kinda cheesy I know but I was born on this very day. On the other hand it's sorta cool because people remember :)

It's funny how you have a birthday and the first thing you think it's: "Oh shoot, I'm in a different age group now" In my case, one of (if not THE) hardest: 35 - 39 Oh well, I guess another reason to push myself even more.... right!

This morning I ran a local 5 miler race, the 'Ghisallo Frosty Five Run'. It was cold (low 30s, probably felt like in the 20s) and windy. According to my Garmin I finished at 35min 34sec... 6 seconds slower than last years. I didn't think about checking my previous year's time and try to beat it... typical me... oh well. Not that I have been working on speed at all, been focusing on my IM base-training right now, so I'm still happy with today's race.

After the race my lovely wife, a friend and I went to have breakfast. After that my friend left and wifey and I went to REI to get my b-day present, a bike rack. Ended up getting the THULE 594 Side Arm:



Cool eh?

I also grabbed some bike gloves and tights.

Training is still going great. Coach makes training fun, it's not repetitive or monotonous at all.
Gonna try to get out in the bike tomorrow, it'll be the first time outdoors since September!!!

Hope everyone is having an awesome Valentine's... enjoy!

PC

Base Training

Been working on my base training for about a month and it's been great!

The swims are pretty good and different workouts make them fun; trainer has been good as well... I find riding on the trainer a bit boring sometimes, but I've been doing mix workouts which make it better plus I watch movies while I ride... not sure I could do them with out a TV down there (basement). Running has been great, no complains there... especially since the weather is getting better. Tried my new Motion All-Weather Newtons and freaking love them, they feel awesome!

My great friend and now Coach Sam has agreed to help me with my training, she's basically training me and it's been working excellent! She has kicked my arse a couple of times but at the end of the day I feel good about each training session. She truly is a fantastic Coach, very knowledgeable and FUN. I am curious as to how my tris are going to go this season and of course how I'll do at IM Lou. (Thanks Sammy!! :) )

Racing-wise I'm doing a 5 mile race on Feb. 14 and then on Feb.28 I'm gonna do a 10 mile trail race. Next month I'm racing the St. Patrick's Day 5 mile race on Mar. 14. Some fun races until tri season which I can hardly wait for. My first tri (I think) will be Tri Zou (formerly known as Race for Sight) in Columbia, MO... It's a nice sprint tri (440 yard swim – 14 mile bike – 3 mile run) I did last year and enjoyed it.