Winter returns.

Just as soon as I was outside riding, winter returns in full force. I am ready to be DONE with winter! My nephew calls me on Saturday and well he's outside building a shed with his dad... why can't it be that nice here?! I'd help build the shed, just after I went for a ride, I promise, just let it not be snowy and freezing... Super jealous.

Last weekend I joined two super fast triathletes for an 80 mile ride on dry pavement and chilly spring like temperatures. This week.... a foot of snow falls with more in the forecast and temps drop below zero. This weekend I totally struggle to make myself get back on the trainer. I'm not pleased. It's winter in full force, the total "blah" of an attitude sets in as my motivation plummets. Snow's great and all for December and January, but any later into the season- keep it in the mountains, please! So it's freezing cold and all I want to do is be under a blanket on the couch drinking coffee or hot tea. I got less than four months... this is not the time for training adaptations to go in reverse.

I'm attempting to make myself not so wintry-depressed through blogging tonight... So, I'm going to write about my awesome bike ride last weekend: I join two much stronger riders, actually one of them is the best triathlete in town. Anyway, I'm thinking: "I am way out of my league, but I'm going to do everything I can to keep up and it's going to be an awesome ride." We start out descending down the hill to our route. Just a few miles pass and we're climbing this huge hill. Objective for that hill climb- don't wear yourself out, we're just getting started. Then we ride on keeping a decent pace and I'm thinking: "to maintain this, it's going to be an overall hard effort for the day without much break". I had no idea what was actually in store for us. The wind factor seemed a headwind in every direction. I'm feeling good. I can't help but smile, I'm riding with two of the best athletes I know! Then just a couple minutes before the one hour mark, I learn that the next 45 minutes will be time trial effort. Seeing as I'm the weakest rider, I'm encouraged to tuck-in as close as possible and hang on. My thoughts: "Oh my gosh, this is going to be hard!" The only way I would be able to keep up would to be to draft. I did alright for about 15 minutes, then I just couldn't hold on tight enough and began to drop back. Within 10 minutes the second rider drops back and attempts to catch us both up the lead rider. We didn't make it before the lead circled back. With 15 minutes of TT to go, it was another shot at tucking in and hanging on. I was peddling as fast and as hard as I possibly could. I still fell off the back, but no shame, it was an awesome effort and I at least kept them in sight. I felt more accomplished following that 45 minutes than after any trainer ride the last three months. The rest of the ride was a more manageable pace. We made a water stop in at the 2:30 mark and then took a shorter way back to complete the ride in about 4:15. I don't have actual total time or average pace because I forgot to stop my watch when we stopped for water- bummer because I'd really like those numbers. All in all, it might be the best long ride I've ever done. Riding with two awesome people and incredible athletes and testing my cycling strength just to keep up. Actually I caught a second wind with about 1:15 to go and in combination with a tailwind and long descents, I finished strong. Feeling really good about last weekend.... If only winter hadn't returned. I was a total weakling this weekend.

So the motivation factor has got to go up. Tomorrow starts a new calendar week and I will be making a diligent effort to make up lost time and push forward strong, getting back on track.

A genetics test tomorrow. Job applications to complete asap. And the million other things I've managed to get myself involved in to balance.... it's going to be a long week.