Training...

"You triathletes are crazy."
Don said that at the end of our swim last night.

I think he may be right, since after hardcore runs and rides over the weekend, Monday saw 5 hours of training and today started bright and early with training in the freezing cold.

When the alarm goes off on ride mornings, the cold air hits me and the desire to just cuddle back up under the blankets is so tempting it almost hurts. Those first few minutes are the worst, where I'm tired and cold and rationalizing that I don't need to ride, that it just seems like a miserable way to spend a morning. But then, after a protein bar with the space heater on, I'm ready to start layering up. Today's ride saw me with:
sports bra and bike shorts
assos leg warmers and a sleeveless underarmour shirt
tights
underarmour bike shirt
long sleeve jersey
shoes with booties
gloves and clava

It takes me 15 minutes to get ready! Yeesh.

Anyway, I met Chris and Christian at Brower and we rode about 23 miles in the cold. It was not too bad. I love riding with a group, though I'm still getting a handle on pack riding and drafting- it's hard to understand that drafting is actually legal!

But it's always great when I start into a training workout- the hardest is just getting started, but as soon as I get going, I realize why I'm doing it and how much I love it.

I went to my appointment with Cohen, the sports medicine guy, who said what I assumed he'd say- that my training volume is likely what's hurting my legs, since it takes so long to heal muscle tears when they're constantly getting retorn and rebuilt. So maybe I'll cut out the minor stuff like the extra spinning, but I can't cut much- I need the rides and the runs for the marathon and for bike racing, and the weight stuff augments that, the yoga is important for my IT band and my hamstrings, and swimming is important in terms of keeping up technique and just relaxing a little bit. So it's tough. Hopefully that's all it is, though. He does want me to come back in a few weeks and see what's going on. I'm just leery about cutting back on some stuff- it's not like I can shorten team rides, and I damn well can't shorten my longer runs, since the marathon is coming up. But I'll try to slightly decrease volume.

Well, I'm going to start tonight, since I feel totally wiped out from the past few days. Instead of a 30 min weigh set, 30 min swim, and riding to and fromt he gym, I'm going to do my Iron Yoga. And actually do school stuff... Off to the computer lab and library!