Frosty

Brrrrrr..... It was cold today. I didn't realize it when I got to work, but that was the high for the day - 29 degrees. It had dropped down to 23 by lunch time. Luckily, it was sunny, which helped, but the winds were 10-15 mph which puts the wind chill around 15 degrees.

I ordered some winter riding gear, but it won't be here until tomorrow so my lunch ride was pretty frosty. I wear leg warmers and shorts and, trust me on this one, shorts don't block the wind. And my gloves didn't do a good job keeping my fingers warm. I didn't realize how cold they were until I stopped at Gino's for lunch. My fingers started warming up and it was painful. I could barely sign the receipt.

My face was pretty cold and so were my toes. My upper body was fine...that's about the only part of my body that wasn't cold. That paper thin Pearl Izumi jacket I wear worked it's magic again. Maybe one of these days I'll get a real winter jacket. Maybe.

Even though I froze, I avoided the trainer for another day. Victory. Well....kind of. The ride was pretty brutal, actually. I felt really sluggish out there. Luckily, Chris said he was feeling sluggish too (that's right, I'm not the only sucker riding at lunch - Roy and Joe rode as well but they take the bike path). Seminole was tough with the headwind and I eventually cracked and Chris pulled away. I don't know how he was holding 20 mph into that wind but I just couldn't do it any more. I think it's a combination of the cold and my mileage being down. I've only ridden 200 miles in November, which makes this one of my lowest mileage months of the year. I feel slow these days and it sucks. I can't wait for spring.

Here's a good recurring theme: another great swim workout tonight. I'm on a roll. My main set was 3 x 450 on 9:00 (450 yards is a 1/4 mile). My times were 7:29, 7:23 and 7:31. My best times yet.

I was listening to an old podcast of The Competitors today at work and they interviewed Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps. He said he swims 8-10 miles per day. I'm swimming about 1.4 miles a few times a week. I couldn't imagine putting in that much time at the pool. That's insane.

Swim
Time = 1:00:00
Distance = 2500 yards

Bike
Time = 1:05:14
Distance = 18.12 miles
Ave Speed = 16.7 mph
Max Speed = 30.90 mph
Elevation gain = 969 ft.