Winter is back

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Welcome back to winter time! After a week and a half of nice, warm weather, Colorado is back to the teens. I was riding in jersey and shorts on Tuesday, working on my tan lines. On Saturday, I was bundled up with wind-proof bibs, Craft wind blocker shirt, heavy jersey and Gore Jacket. I just got the Gore Wear Oxygen jacket a week ago and wow – it works great. Normally, I would have been stuck inside on the trainer at 20 degrees. The hubby conned me into riding outside and I got in the whole three hours I had planned without even noticing the temperature. This is good, because we have 24 Hours of Old Pueblo coming up in just a few weeks and he’s freaking out. Last year when he raced solo, the weather was horrible. I flew down to Phoenix for a marathon on the Sunday of the race and drove to Tucson to say hello. There was snow in the mountains around Tucson, and it rained the whole time. One of those 35 degree rains that just chill you to the bone. Everything was covered in mud. The road leading to the race site was almost impassible for any car without four wheel drive. Hopefully, the weather won’t be as bad this year, but if it is, we’ve got the clothes to keep riding all 24 hours. He’s made sure that I get gear that works. Even if the weather is awful, it will be nice to get way and get some good training and racing in the legs.
This is that time of year that I dislike the most. It’s time to start gradually increasing distance and intensity after a few weeks down time to recover from a busy season. But it’s also the worst time to have to settle into the new routine. It’s cold, dark and icy in the morning and gets dark very quickly after work. I don’t mind the cold and dark, but falling on the ice hurts. It’s also a bad time to bring the workouts inside – resolution season. Gyms that are already crowded fill to overflowing. I’m happy to see that people want to get healthy and get active, but I wish people decided to join the gym in March. Then I would already be outside. Hey, I’m probably just as bad to the real treadmill regulars. I only show up when it’s snowy and cold, take a spot that belongs to someone else and run for an hour or two. Soon it will be summer and we’ll all be complaining that it’s too hot.

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