Group Bike & Run Training + Fund Raiser - Mar 8

Well folks, today has to be the most intense day of training and activity since I started pursuing the triathlon!

For starters, I had to get up at 6:30 am in the morning to get ready and drive almost an hour to our training area in Walled Lake. With snow coming down all night and all through the day, it was impossible getting out of bed, but a cup of green tea & two bananas later, my senses started to respond to my commands.

I organized my bag, put the bike on my shoulders and strutted towards my truck. It was not only snowy, but the temp indicator in my car read 11 deg, is it cold or what?!! I fired my butt warmers in the car and raised the internal temperature control to 80 deg, just to keep my fingers from getting numb. Forty mins later, I am going through the entire routine of taking my bike out and cursing the weather for being so chilly. :(

The team as always was in high spirits, and that motivation just has a way of brushing off on you. Our workout today was quite tough, with lots of speed drills during our regular course, and I was literally melting away in a pool of sweat (so glad I placed a towel beneath my bike)!

Just when we thought life was getting better as we were completing our cool down, our fearless trainer asked how many people wanted to go run after this, and at this point I am looking out at the howling blizzard like conditions, a man walking tilted to keep his balance walking, and wondering what these people had for breakfast in the morning!

Regardless, I changed into my track pants, put my cap on, fired up my ipod and hit the road behind the lead duo. The body received a shock of its life, chilly wind mixed with snow flakes filled my lungs while I struggled to gain traction and maintain balance on the snowy pavement. What made it harder was the wind blowing against me, such that I had to lower my head to keep my form a little more aerodynamic (although the drag coefficient was still high).

the first mile and a half was not bad, but then my shin started to tighten up and the gap between the duo in front of me seemed to be increasing. I increased my pace to catch up to then, but my shin was just getting tighter and tighter. I realized, that if I stopped, I would need a ride back because with the weather conditions, my muscle would cramp even more from sudden cooldown. I made up my mind that I was going to stay on their tail and just keep moving and worry about the leg when I get back. My team mate Brad had shared some words of wisdom with me earlier that gave me motivation.."the pain is the weakness leaving the body"...and by god I kept on going with a hint of limping and lo behold I made it 20 secs behind Ron and Brad!

I was not sure when I got in, what was more important, trying to nurse my leg, or get my body temperature back to normal. A couple of bagels, bananas and some powerade later, life seemed to be getting better. While I was loading my bike in the car back, I could not understand how I had just run 3 miles in this weather, and then I realized that the cause is not just a physical journey, but a very mental one as well. There have been many challenges in my life, but none have been vaguely similar to this one. Anyways, enough of the philosophy, because I have to write about my fund raiser effort I had to report to from 2pm - 4pm at one of the local grocery stores that graciously allowed us to do a fund raiser there.

I arrived after taking an hour nap to recoup myself (not sufficient, given my condition), find Casey dressed up for the Alaskan winter shivering, while Carl and Michelle are holding hands to keep warm (quite touching really). Considering the feat I had performed earlier in the day, I proceeded to bring my bike in and set it up on the trainer and get myself stripped down to my shorts to get pedaling on the bike. A minute into it, and I realized I was going numb in my fingers and my chest was started to act funny, so I put on my dollar hand gloves and my jackets, while still pumping at the pedals to keep the blood flowing. I think the idea was cool, however the execution sucked really bad, with the freezing wind blowing in my face everytime the door opened, and ofcourse to be it seemed perpetually open!

We had some lady donate $10 and she thought we might be fund raising for the comedy club since I was biking in shorts in this weather, regardless she was nice. A bunch of other people were quite excited about this and donated generously, however I had to take a break since I could no longer feel my butt. Ron was going to replace me on the bike, while I ran out and got some coffee for us, so a couple of lattes later, we had some color back in our skin!

During the 2 hours we were there, we did well enough to learn how to talk to people and how to make quick comebacks on some of their witty remarks. Ron did a bunch of bottle collecting and cashing in from the reciepts, which I really appreciated, Thanks Ron!! :)

While the first 30 mins were brutal, the rest of the hour & thirty minute did not feel as bad, especially given the company was good. Brad showed up around 4 pm and then Kim and Don strolled in too to form the next merry bunch and raring to go. Now that is an entry for them to write, as I need to nurse my legs to them to like me again! ;)