Dealer Expo

I just returned from a trade show in Indianapolis. It was a very long weekend, but I'm back and ready for things to get back to normal. I hate trade shows so I was pretty eager to get this over with.

I tried to stick with my training schedule, which isn't easy when working a trade show. I found a pool near my hotel, which I thought was going to be really nice. It's the Indiana University Natatorium, which has several pools and has a 50 meter competition pool where 11 world records have been set. It turns out they put a temporary wall in the competition pool and break it up into 2 25 yard pools, which is kind of nice because it opens up a lot of lap lanes and I had a lane to myself the whole time. But the pool was old and kind of nasty. Not what I expected.

Then I ran around the river, which was nice because they don't really have any snow down there so I was running on concrete for a change. I forgot how much easier it is to run when you're not slipping the whole time. I'm not looking forward to running in the snow again.

Apparently, I missed a nasty ice storm, but I didn't miss the frigid temps. I got home just in time for yet another cold front to come through (blame Canada) and drop the temps into the single digits. This is getting really old. I've had enough winter for one year. It's time for spring.

The Tour of California started Sunday, and I'm hoping Levi pulls through with another victory especially since it looks like he may not be allowed to ride the Tour de France.

Let Levi Ride.

Enjoy

Last night they were hyping up this winter storm we were having on the local news. I figured the schools would be closed today so I set my alarm an hour later than usual. The extra hour of sleep was fantastic, and I was right. The schools were closed so I wouldn't have been able to swim this morning even if I had gotten up early. Good call.

When I got up, I turned on the news and now they were talking about the Super Storm. Super Storm? What happened while I was asleep? How much snow did we get? I looked outside and saw we only got about 3 inches. This winter, that's par for the course and hardly enough to constitute calling it a Super Storm. I knew we were supposed to get more snow during the day, but I thought the bulk of the snow was supposed to hit last night. How wrong I was.

I had a lunch run planned, and I was determined not to let a little snow stop me from running. I knew it had been snowing all morning, but I didn't notice how much snow had accumulated. I didn't really care. We've had so much snow this winter I figured this snowfall would be no different from the others. Right before heading out for my run, an e-mail went out telling everyone the office is closing at 3 due to the snow. I debated skipping lunch to get some more work done and then running at 3. Heather talked me into running at lunch because she thought that if I ran at 3 I would be the only left in the parking lot when I got back and I would be screwed if I had trouble getting out. Good point. So I suited up and headed out for a 45 minute run in what could now rightfully be called a Super Storm (although I still think that's being a little dramatic, it definitely qualifies as a blizzard....and not of the DQ variety).

Walking across the parking lot to the bike path, I wondered how I was going to run through this stuff. It was about a foot deep with drifts several feet deep. I thought this might be a good day to test out those snow shoes Dean wants me to try. I had to climb through a few very deep drifts to get to the bike path, and I started second guessing my decision to run. Maybe this wasn't a good idea afterall. But at this point I felt committed. I was in my running gear. I couldn't turn back now and admit defeat.

So I hit the start button on my watch and started across the bridge. The snow was pretty deep, and I wondering if the people driving on the beltline below could see me and if they thought I was crazy for running in this stuff. As soon as I got across the bridge, I could see the path had been recently plowed. There was already about 2 inches of snow covering the path, but it was a lot better. I was able to pick up the pace a bit, and I thought I might be in for a really fun run. The last time I ran in a heavy snow storm it was really fun. But I quickly realized this run was going to be a little different.

The snow turned into a mix of snow and freezing rain and the wind was blowing and my face was getting so cold it stung. I considered turning back, but that would be admitting defeat. I convinced myself I was only cold because I hadn't run long enough yet to work up enough body heat. Then it turned into ice pellets. Yes, ice pellets. Trust me on this one, running while getting pelted with ice sucks.

Luckily that didn't last long. It turned into snow again, but now the snow started freezing to my eyelashes. It was building up and I was having a hard time seeing. Plus the ice was building up pretty thick on my eyebrows and it got heavy enough to be a distraction. I tried pulling it off, but it felt like my whole eyebrow would come off with the ice so I left it.

I usually see a few runners on the path, even on the bad days, but today I had the path to myself until the 20 minute mark when I saw someone coming toward me. It was good to see another runner. It gave me motivation. I wasn't the only one fighting the conditions to get a few miles in. Then I realized it wasn't a runner. It was someone cross country skiing on the bike path.

I reached the turnaround point...finally. Since I had been running into a headwind the whole time, I figured the way back would be much better. This clearly wasn't the fun snow run I had hoped it would be. Sure enough, the way back wasn't as cold since I had a tailwind and the chunks of ice on my eyebrows eventually thawed and fell off like icicles dropping from the roof.

Yesterday was the slipperiest run of the winter, until today. Yesterday the path was covered in ice, slush and puddles. Today, all of that froze and was covered in fresh snow. The way out was fine, but the way back is uphill and the snow was accumulating fast. I slipped and almost fell for the first time this winter. Then I started slipping a little with every step. I was losing a lot of traction, and this run was starting to become a lot of work. I could no longer see my footprints from the way out and with the wind blowing the path needed to be plowed again...already. I thought about the spikes runners get for their shoes and how they don't seem so unnecessary anymore.

I kept trudging along and saw another cross country skier using the path. Then I saw a kid in a snowsuit running down the path hit a patch of ice and go down. That confirmed it wasn't just me. It was indeed slippery. Then I saw one last person, on a bike no less. As we crossed paths, he said, "enjoy."

Yes, I thought. Enjoy. My face was no longer cold and the ice on my eyelashes and eyebrows had thawed. I was tired because the snow was getting deep and slippery and making running difficult, but other than that it wasn't that bad. In fact, it was kind of fun. It was like being a kid playing in the snow on a snow day. You know, minus the sled and friends and laughter plus a dose of fatigue and a touch of misery. Good times.

5.12 miles and 45 minutes later, I made it back to work. Now the real challenge began. I had to get in my car, make it down the road to Gino's to pick up lunch and make it back to work. It was a rough drive, especially since my windows fogged up from my body heat and I couldn't see. But I made it. And then Heather told me our boss told us to go home while I was out running. So I ate my lunch, answered a few e-mails and headed home.

The forecast for the rest of the week: more snow. I've had enough. I'm hoping for a long, hot, dry summer. Here are a few pictures of the storm...

The Worst Kept Secret...

I don't normally blog about work, but I thought this was worth writing about. The worst kept secret in the bicycle industry was officially let out of the bag yesterday. Dorel, our parent company, bought Cannondale. We all saw it coming so it wasn't much of a surprise.

But what we didn't know was coming was the split. Pacific Cycle has split in half. Now there's Pacific Cycle which will handle all of the mass bikes and other brands such as Schwinn Motorsports, my division. A new company was created called Cannondale Sports Group which will sell only to the IBD (Independent Bike Dealers). It makes sense to split the company the way they did, and I'm curious to see how things are going to change. Right now it's too early to tell if this is going to be good for me or not. The motorsports division is very young, and we're now on the mass side of the business operating with a business model that mirrors the IBD side. But we're in motorsports, not bicycles so it makes sense. It should be interesting.

Since I'm planning on getting a tri bike, it looks like I'll be getting a Cannondale now. The Slice Ultimate would be a sweet ride, but the price tag on that one is a bit out of my range, even with an employee deal. I'm leaning toward the Slice 3, maybe the Slice 1 if I think I can afford it. It will all depend on the pricing. The nice thing about the Slice is that all of the models have the same frame, just the specs change. So I could always upgrade later if I wanted to.

As for training...I had a great swim workout yesterday. I've bumped all of my workouts up to 3000 yards, but since this is my recovery week I stepped it back down to 2500 yards this week. Monday, my main set was 3x450 yards. I finally broke the 7 minute mark and I'm pumped up. I swam the first set in 6:57, the second in 7:00 and the third in 7:11 (you can tell I was getting tired). I've been trying to break that 7 minute mark for quite a while and it feels great to finally get there. I feel like I'm starting to become a decent swimmer. All those drills are paying off. Hopefully I can keep this up and set some good swim times at sprint tris this summer.

We're supposed to get pounded with more snow tonight. I've heard anywhere from 5-13 inches. This could make my lunch run tomorrow interesting.

G-Hogs Day!

I hope everyone had a great G-hogs day. It's my favorite holiday because it's all about the end of winter and the beginning of spring. Warm sunshine, green grass. I can't wait.

Today was the end of my high volume week for month 2, so now I get an easy week to get a little rest and recovery. This was a good, hard week and I got in some good base training. Friday, I spent 2.5 hours on the trainer doing an endurance/tempo ride. I started with a 15 minute warm up, then alternated between 20 minute intervals in my endurance power zone and my tempo power zone and ended with a 15 minute cool down. You'd think 2.5 hours on the trainer would be absolute torture, but I've gotten used to 20 minute intervals so as long as I focus only on the interval I'm doing and don't think about the total time it's not so bad.



Then Saturday I did a similar endurance/tempo workout for 1 hour and 45 minutes. That's 4 hours and 15 minutes on the trainer in 24 hours. Definitely a record for me. It's not easy spending that much time on the trainer, but I'm confident it will pay off this spring.

Saturday, Cheri and I went for a 45 minute run that turned out to be a little tougher than Cheri thought it would be. This was her first time running while it was snowing, and we were running through an inch of slippery snow while getting pelted in the face with fresh snow. She was a trooper and kept pushing hard and kept her pace up (and steady the whole run which is a sign the base training she's doing on the treadmill is paying off), but she's paying the price a bit today with sore legs.

But her legs weren't too sore to go swimming with me this morning, which always makes swimming more fun because she likes to swim behind me and try to touch my toes. If it doesn't make me laugh, it makes me swim faster. Either way, it's more fun than swimming alone. Then I headed out for a one hour run, my longest run since returning from my knee injury (I figure my knee is about 95% right now so it's healing well).

Weekly Totals
Total Time: 15:33:19
Swim: 3:45 (9000 yards)
Bike: 8:02:43 (147.66 miles)
Run: 3:45:36 (24.01 miles)

January's over...finally

The good news: the worst month of the year is over. The bad news: the second worst month of the year starts tomorrow.

I've been biking indoors for 8 weeks now, and I think I'm going insane. Unfortunately, I probably have about 6 more weeks of indoor riding before I can ride outdoors. At least I can run outside, although I'm getting really tired of the cold.

I was looking at my workout log from last January, and I definitely stepped things up this year... a lot. Last year I biked 195 miles (not all of them indoors), and I ran 21 miles. That included a half marathon. I ran twice in January before the half marathon, and didn't run at all afterwards. In fact, I didn't run again until April so I'm way ahead of last year. I didn't do any swimming last January. Here are my numbers this year:

Swim: 33,950 yards (19.2 miles)
Bike: 441 miles
Run: 80 miles

If I stick to my Feb schedule, those numbers should increase. That should give me a pretty good base for spring so I can step up the intensity without getting injured.

A heat wave, a tropical heat wave...

Yep, we're having a heat wave here in sunny, southern Wisconsin. It was a scorcher today, topping out at a steamy 30 degrees. Tomorrow it's supposed to be in the mid 40s...again. That will be the second time this January we've hit the 40s. It has been a strange winter. Record snowfalls for Dec, record highs in January, dense fog that caused a 100-car pileup (although you could blame the moron that stopped in the middle of the Interstate), a January thunderstorm, then sub-zero temps and now we're back up to the 40s. Very strange.

The picture is from the vacation Cheri and I took to sunny Jamaica. Unfortunately, there won't be any vacations this year. It's all about the Ironman this summer, and I'm lucky enough to have a very supportive girlfriend who not only understands but actually pushes me to keep up with my training and get my workouts in (especially all those damn core workouts she makes me do). There aren't too many guys who have wives/girlfriends that support them like that. Since she's going to have to put up with my IM training all summer, I told her we'll finally go see Italy next year. She's always wanted to go to Italy, so that's the plan. No vacation this year, but a very memorable one next year.

I just finished up week 6 of training. Everything went well. No missed workouts and I felt pretty good all week. A little tired at times, but not bad.

Week 6 Stats
Total time: 14:04:40
Swim: 3:30 (8500 yards)
Bike: 7:04:24 (125 miles)
Run: 3:30:16 (23 miles)

Coffee and Chlorine

I noticed a few weeks ago that the pool has a few lap lanes open in the morning, so today I decided to get up early and swim before work. I've been a little hesitant to swim in the mornings because I didn't know if I could get a good swim workout in that early and I know a lot of people like to swim in the morning so I thought there might be a lot of people fighting over 2 lanes.

I got to the pool at 6 am, and discovered there was only one other lap swimmer there plus the boy's swim team. I had a lane to myself. Nice. The locker room was clean. No pretzels in the shower. No little kids swimming. No parents in the bleachers. It was great. I didn't have any problems getting in a good workout, so I think I'm going to swim in the mornings a lot more. It's open Monday through Thursday and it's rarely closed in the mornings so it should be easier for me to stick to my schedule. Good deal.

The only problem is that coffee and chlorine don't mix well.

Timetrialapalooza Night: Brutal, brutal workout tonight. I adjusted my power zones from last time because I felt I didn't push hard enough in the first 3 TTs. I figured I could do a little more. I was right, but barely. I hit all of my goals (both power and cadence), but it was really tough. My legs were a little shaky after the workout. To celebrate a good workout, I bring you some entertainment...