The Weather Gods are spoiling all my fun!! Well, fiddlesticks!!!! The weather in Austin has not been at all conducive to my kind of training fun! Below is a summary of the last few days of training:

Sunday, March 19

After an awesome ride on St. Paddy's Day, Sunday ended up being a day off. It was probably a good thing, though. After I finished the ATC ride on Saturday, I dropped by Austin Bike Shop to see if they had my new stem in. The only guy there said that it had come in, but he couldn't find it. So, I left the bike there and told him I'd pick it up Monday. Also, I didn't have my tri bike because I let a friend borrow it to do a 6-mile time trial race on Saturday (he got 4th place, by the way!!!). So, I thought about running today, but my legs were pretty tired from all the riding on my new bike, so I just bagged it and took a much needed rest day.

Monday, March 20

I went to the bike shop to pick up my bike only to find that the stem hadn't been put on yet. I'm glad I went early because I was supposed to meet Jason for a ride at 11:45 AM. Eric, the bike mechanic on duty, found the new stem and put it on for me. So, I was able to meet Jason for the ride. The only problem was that the weather was pretty iffy. We decided to be on the safe side and just rode down to the 360 bridge and back. I had something for work at 2:00 PM, so we had to make sure I'd be back in time to shower and get back to work before then. We got rained on a bit, but still managed to get in about 20 miles, so it wasn't a wasted day.

Tuesday, March 21

Again, it was cloudy with spotty showers all over the area. I brought my tri bike to ride on Tuesday because I'd had the guys at Jack & Adam's re-fit me on it after my friend had borrowed it. I worked with Richard Freer, a relatively new employee at J&A, but a well-known pro triathlete here in Austin. It was the first time I'd actually met him and he was a great guy. He played with the seat height quite a bit until he got it right for me. Then, we talked about my position and how I felt on the bike. We decided to take out one of the spacers on the stem and get my front end just a little lower. I also talked to him about potentially switching out my current aerobars for some "s-bend" bars. He said he finds the s-bends much better for gripping and power than the bars I currently have. It was good to get a professional opinion, but I'm going to think about that one for a while. Quite frankly, I don't think I have the money to switch out the aero bars at this time!

Anyway . . . the ride Tuesday was much like Monday, only shorter. I did 15 miles on 360 and Bee Caves Road with some wind gusts of up to 25 mph. I had intended to just spin and adjust to the bike, but it ended up being pretty tough with the winds. Afterward, I did a 30-minute run at 5k pace (for me, about 7:30-7:45 per mile), so I got about 4 miles in. The good news is that I didn't have any back issues in transitioning from ride to run. That was very nice.

Wednesday, March 22

Today's workout is a split workout. I started with a bike ride this morning and will have a Texas Iron swim class later tonight (7:00 PM). Hopefully, the swim goes better than the ride. I rode out again with Jason and Jeff from Temple-Inland over on MoPac. I had the road bike out today, and yet again, the weather had 25-mph wind gusts and spots of rain (yes, I got rained on twice!!). Everything was going pretty well. We headed up the MoPac access road, around Barton Creek Mall, and onto Hwy 360 to head over to Westlake to ride some hills. Just after we passed by the exit for Bee Caves Road, I hit something that made my rear tire go instantly flat. Jeff said it was a few pieces of heavy glass that he narrowly missed and I just flat out didn't see. When I checked the tire, it had a 2 cm cut in it all the way through. It's ruined. Luckily, I had a spare tube, some CO2, and a dollar bill I could use as a makeshift patch. I sent Jeff and Jason on their way and then turned around and limped home. It wasn't much of a workout, but I did get 15 miles of saddle time and an easy spin for my tired legs. I'll write more about the swim workout in my next update.