Sunday, January 3, 2010

Running & Riding With Rachel

So even though this weekend appeared to be a bust because of the snow, thanks to Crazy Mark I still got my last long run in. On Friday we all made plans to run together Saturday morning. Wynn, Teresa and Mark were up for helping us along with our last run. We set a time and place after we saw Avatar Friday night.

Saturday morning at 6:30a my alarm goes off. Wingman tells me my phone chirped that there was a message waiting. He also informed me that it had snowed and was windy. I checked my text msg and Wynn wanted to know what we were going to do. I looked out the window, thought it out, and decided to bail on the run because I was worried about the roads and my footing. I texted Wynn back and told him it was no go. He called me to say he could not get a hold of Mark. We figured we would get out later in the day to run or perhaps on Sunday. I hung up and crawled back into my warm bed. No more than 5 minutes later the phone rings again. It was Wynn telling me that Crazy Mark showed up and was ready to run. What did I want to do. They were ready, willing, and able to run with me. Argh. I told them I would be over by 8a. I hung up again and spoke to Wingman. I asked him if he wanted to come out to run with us and he looked at me like I was crazy. So, I was heading out alone.

I made it to Wynn's and found out what it takes to cancel a run. Basically it is a category 5 storm. Today's snow doesn't even come close. Teresa and I headed out on our route. The guys would be starting out 5 minutes behind us. On the way out we were trying to find ways of hiding until the guys passed us and then doubling back to the house. But we knew they would be watching our footsteps in the snow. We had to run. Finally around the 3 mile mark the guys caught up to us. I brought my little camera with me and we snapped a photo of the crew:


This is what 4 Warriors-In-Training look like

We had a blast out there. The footing was a little tricky, but it was so worth it. You don't get many opportunities to get out there with friends and have one of those 'epic' workouts. Wynn didn't escape unscathed. He wiped out on the way back. His feet came up and down he went on his back. But in true triathlete fashion, he stopped his Garmin watch so it wouldn't mess up his workout averages!


Part of our route (you can see our steps)


When I got back home I told Wingman all about the run. He was still OK with the fact that he did not go.

We were supposed to go to my cousin's on Sunday but her kids were sick and with a marathon in a week, I didn't want to get sick. So we rescheduled out visit. We made the best of it when Wynn and Teresa invited us over for "Trainerpalooza." Ian was coming as well. 5 of us setup our bike trainers in their garage and watched a DVD. We kept the workout short (1 hour), but it was fun. We started out in gloves, long sleeves, hats and in no time we peeled the layers off.


The happy cyclists (Rachel is on the right) - Photo courtesy of Wynn


After the ride, Joan came over, Wynn made us lunch and we had some great conversations. I brought the dessert over (triple chocolate mousse cake) that I had made to bring to my cousin's. Hmm, something tells me that had something to do with our being invited over ;-)  Next time, Ian promised to bring his tandem bike and Joan will ride with us.

Wynn showed me some cool photos he's taken over the years and some things you can do with Photoshop. I am just getting started with my photography hobby so it was nice to see some stuff I can do down the line. We also talked about triathlon training plans for 2010. Wynn has a big race planned and was telling us about a book he's been reading about race planning. There are 3 plans in there based on your race experience. There's one for "Novice Nick", "Kona Ken', and "Runner Rachel". Guess which one seems to fit Wynn's experience? That's right, Runner Rachel. So from now own, we're calling him Rachel.

One week from today and I will be done with my marathon. Part of me is looking forward to getting it done and moving on to more training that involves all 3 sports. Today's group ride got me eager to get back on the bike. And now that Wingman and I have some great training partners, I think it will be a good year!!

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