After Christmas....going into the new year

The morning workouts continue to go well. I'm getting up and doing the workouts, and now I can feel my body beginning to be able to work at higher outputs in the morning. The human body is an amazing machine.

I did a nine-days straight push of workouts before leaving to NoDak for Christmas. My legs were ready to sit in the car all day, for sure. Then it snowed for three days straight with blizzard conditions most of the time. I was no-kidding planning to run, but I don't run in the wind...or two feet of snow. I don't mind the cold, it's the wind that gets me. So now workouts for six days.

My parents got me a nice wind-breaker cycling jacket for Christmas. Nice and bright, too. It should help me get out in the mornings during the summer. Maybe I'll start to ride even when it's down to 50degrees! Seriously, I need to be biking in the morning, and the cool wind has made me bail in the past. Not this year!

Today I basically destroyed my legs during my morning workout. I normally feel ok after a workout, but today the soreness set-in within a few hours. All day long I had trouble walking. The real challenge is to do tomorrow morning's workout.

I am seeing weekly improvements on my bike, and it is very motivating. It's easy to get up and workout when you know you are improving. Each day is a different type of workout, and each day I do better than the previous week. I'm not looking forward to the inevitable plateua at all.

Next week I start a new phase of this plan. I'll continue to do big bike workouts each morning, followed by a 1.5 or 3mile run. The bike is being extended by 20 minutes to reach a total of 80 minutes, which is just a bit longer than a normal 40k ride. Then I'll run with the goal of teaching my legs to run after the bike. At lunch will be lifting weights or swimming. I'm starting up swimming again next week when the gym at ISU opens up again. I'm not terribly excited about that, but I need to do it. I am excited about getting back into the weight room again, though.

This weekend I plan to get in my first turns of the year. A buddy and me are planning a backcountry ski adventure in the local mountains. The snow will be sketchy, but it should be there by now. Then it's a family fun XC ski on Saturday.

My race schedule is up in the air right now. The Marine Corps drill weekends and the two-week exercise at the end of August are really cutting into the schedule. Everything is falling on the same weekends, and the Marine Corps gets the priority. Looks like a couple of olympic tris in Utah at this point. The Rush Tri in Rexburg is definitely out, and that was going to be my A race. Also, the Bear Lake Brawl got moved to the last weekend of August, so that is out, too. Damn, my two favorite races are gone this year. But I still get to do Janet's Tri in June, so that is good; it's always nice to be in Yellowstone, do a tri, and then get in some early summer fishing.

Things are on track for a much improved bike time this summer, though, and that is my focus right now. When I'll get to prove that in a race is the question.