They must be training

Denver, Colorado proudly boasts 300 days of sun a year.
Today was not one of them.

Yes, the fall season is very pretty and I always love the first time I reach into the closet to pull out a sweater... But overall, fall represents a lot of things I don't like. It represents going back to school, and more importantly, it represents the end of summer and the coming of a long cold winter. Boo hiss.

When I lived in the midwest, fall was always peppered with many beautiful warm indian summer days. We don't see as many of those living in Colorado. It seems like it's just suddenly cold one day. When the weather changes out here, you really never know what you're going to get. 75 degrees one day, snow the next, 70's the following day again. True! It happens! The snow is already flying in the mountains and anyone that truly has a passion for skiing is already giddy with excitement... But I'm just not ready for the cold temps! (The bonus is that we'll get random warm days midwinter and spring shows up earlier here than it does in the midwest--so it all works out in the wash.)

So today: I need to do a one hour ride immediately followed by a 45 minute run for a "Brick" workout. This was supposed to be scheduled tomorrow (when it's supposed to be blue skies, sunny and 70! Argh!) but alas I have parent teacher conferences tomorrow night. So bad weather or not, I need to git 'er done tonight. I had a lazy rough recovery week last week. Can't do that again this week.

So I get home from school today, break out the arm warmers, leg warmers and jacket. I had to dig for them and that saddened me. I load up the bike to head over to the flattest trail I know that also offers a great flat running trail also. It's cold! It's only in the 50's, and very dark and cloudy. I realize that I forgot my gloves. Brrr.... 15 minutes in to my ride, it starts raining. At first I thought I was riding through a swarm of gnats and they were making noise hitting my windbreaker. Nope. Those were raindrops. I'm already cold, and I know my windbreaker won't keep me dry. I wuss out and head home to put the bike on the trainer. (I know, I know. If Kirk is reading this he can brag about all the cold weather rides he did on the Platte trail when he was training for his Ironman. I'm a wuss! What can I say? I was cold and just didn't see the point.)

Of course the rain stops when I get home. I ride on the trainer for the prescribed hour, then head out for the run. (It's now dark out because naturally I wasted a bunch of time.) I kid you not, five minutes into my run, it starts raining again. !!!!??? What the heck? Is this a sign of what I can expect at IMFL? It wasn't a hard rain, just a light steady sprinkle, so I pushed through it and did the entire run workout.

I don't usually work out in the mornings primarily because I'm a not a morning person AND I'd have to get up butt early to get to work on time (I have to be to work 7-ish everyday.) While driving to work I saw this guy running in a pouring rain one morning. I've also seen him biking two other mornings at the same 7 o'clock hour. I'm dying to know what he's training for.

I felt good tonight thinking that maybe somebody was driving by me tonight, in the dark, while it was raining, and maybe, just maybe, somebody drove by me and wondered, "I wonder what she's training for?"


39 days and a whole lot of fear and nerves to go.