Riding, running, at 4C in the rain, in the wind.

Cloudy out there. Not looking good.



Greg took mercy on me this am, 40-50 EZ and drills. There was another medium sized dog in the pool that I shared a lane with. He was a bit faster than me, and we soon punted a slower swimmer. I was having a good day in the pool. I couldn't quite keep up, but he only lapped me once in the first K.
1.0 K 18:45
1.5 K 28:37
2.0 K 38:32
Then some drills and cool down to bring it up to 50 minutes. Another 15 minutes in the dive tank, but mainly stretching and mobility stuff, not serious core.

Home, and prepare for a ride. I really don't want to ride the trainer anymore, and I have to learn to ride in the rain sometime. Dressed warmly, tights, armwarmers under long sleeved tech shirt, fleece vest, wind jacket, gloves. Parked down at 37 St and 22X again. Rather than ride down the entire Road to Nepal and back, I decided to stay on the first two hills and go back and forth. Just in case it started a torrential rain so that it was clearly not safe to ride; this way I was only 2 K max from the car.

Here's what the hill workout looked like. This is the first 2 hills, down, then up again. Just to get you warmed up for the hills to come on the rest of the road.


Back and forth, 4 K per lap, 4 laps. The first two weren't bad, though the wind was starting to pick up and there was occasional spatters of rain drops. It started actually raining about half way through, and getting colder. I could see my breath on the air. By the beginning of the 4th lap it was still light rain with darker clouds rolling in. I decided to go for the one more. By the end it was raining harder and the winds were getting kind of gusty. That was enough for me.

I was supposed to do 8-12 hills, and I got to 8. I'm not sure if Greg was expecting me to do this on a trainer or not. Given that he also said 2-3 minutes per hill, and a round trip was taking an average of 12 minutes each, I think I got the hill part of the workout done, even if I wasn't on the bike as long as the plan said. The ride was 48 minutes. I think I get moral points or something for being out in the cold and rain even that long, to make up for the shorter ride.

I took a pic of myself right after the ride. It's in my phone, and I CANNOT get it out. I can't send it to myself or anyone else. My computer Bluetooth is all set up, and works for other devices. The phone finds the computer, but they can't talk to each other to share the file. Stupid Telus phone. I bet an iPhone wouldn't have this problem. (And yes, Melissa, I'm totally jealous!) So you miss out on a photo of me all wet and moist, unless I figure it out later, or someone tells me the magic sequence of steps.

Took about a 4 minute transition, including playing with the phone. There are 17 photos that are totally black. Apparently I somehow managed to take 17 pictures of the inside of my pocket over the last couple of years. Yet today, I had to go through some stupid rigamarole mickey mouse set of steps to get a photo. Click. How do people do this when riding a bike? I wouldn't dream of trying it. And now I can't get it onto the computer. Sheesh. The difficulties I go through for my faithful audience. I still don't know what genius thought of putting a camera in a phone, and not have any way of getting the photos out.

Then ran 16 minutes down the highway and back. The first 8 minutes were really clunky, with calves sending stiff notes of complaint. Then they settled down, and the next 8 minutes rocked. Out to the turnaround point in 9 minutes, back in 7. And, the way back was uphill into the wind. No doubt the drivers were alarmed at the maniacal grin on my face. I'm just lucky nobody called the cops.

Nibble a really healthy bar that Julie gave me. Crunchy. Tasty. Came back to some V8 and almonds. Stretched. That is enough for today. I'm hoping for nicer weather on Sat, when I want to try the whole road, maybe with some buddies, if we can put it together.