Spring in Iowa

So I complain all winter long about the snow and the cold, just wishing it'd warm up enough to ride and run outside. Then spring comes along and it warms up, and now I complain about the wind and the rain. I spend more time looking at the weather channel than anything else it seems. Take tonight for example. There's a 20ish mile group ride tonight that I am probably going to do. I've looked at the weather channel twice already this morning (and it's only 9am) to see if there's going to be any threat of rain/storms and if the wind will die down or not. Well the good news is it doesn't look like it'll storm, but the wind will be atrocious. AGAIN. And the second half of this route is hilly too. UGH. I'll suck it up and do the ride, but I'm putting Greyt on notice that I will complain about it. ;)

Training is going ok right now...I'm a little bit in the twilight zone with work being so busy right now. I'm spending a lot of time out of town and it just takes a toll on my training. I'm working hard to get things back on track, though. Sunday I joined my TRI cronies for a duathlon-type workout. My goal for this was to treat it as an endurance workout and not really push too hard (this is not a race, this is not a race). The first 6 mile run was ok...it felt like the entire route was uphill and into the wind both ways, but not terrible. Then we got on the bike. Smooth sailing out of the park. I could tell we were riding a tailwind, but wasn't sure how much until we turned the corner. HOLY BUCKETS! The force of the tail/cross wind turning full on head wind about knocked me into oncoming traffic. I should have slowed down more for that turn. Mental note for next time. Going into this headwind was brutal. I was on a road bike, so I was trying to lower myself down into a bit more of an aerodynamic position to try and take some of the bite out of the wind. I don't think it accomplished much, except making me look like a total goofball, which is nothing new. I was very happy to turn around and ride that tailwind again, even if it wasn't for very long. We had to ride the head/cross wind back into the park. I was pretty happy to have that over with.

We were supposed to finish the workout with a 3 mile run...but I didn't do it. I should have...I'm kind of kicking myself for not doing it. But I wimped out. I was a little leery of pushing too much in one day, seeing as I haven't been able to train for several days. I just didn't want to flare up my IT band or anything like that. I know, these are great excuses aren't they? I gotta stop with the excuses...Dam to Dam is like 3 weeks away. Good times.

So I can't end this post without sharing updated photos of my favorite little man, my nephew Gabe. He just had his little 3 month pictures taken, and he's just so darned cute don't you think??