Too Good To Miss

I come from a mountain biking background and pretty much all of it is done solo. For me, I like to do my pace and my distance at whatever difficulty and route I chose. It's rare for anyone to hold my pace or not take frequent breaks so I always end up riding alone. From time to time I like to join the more advanced groups of riders in our area. Luckily I have just enough 'relationship' with some of the best riders around that I can get myself invited to their 'private' rides. Every group has a niche. Some are super-fast cross-county riders, some are crazy all mountain skinny/drops/jumps type riders and then there's a few lone wolves like me that tolerate someone tagging along from time to time. It's great being able to invite myself along on these rides when I feel like it. It can get lonely out there.
Tuesday's ride was nothing exclusive or special, but it was my opportunity to have some fun riding with others. The pace was set for a long slow ride with frequent stops. The ride was expected to last 3 hours in -10Celsius weather! I did a solo 2.5hr sprint on Sunday and my toes were frigid at 1.5hrs-ish. I threw some hand warmers down the top of my shoe to no avail. I don't think they did much for me. So for Tuesday's ride I got official 'toe warmers' and put them on at the beginning of the ride. Afterall the packaging said it's good for 6 hours so that really means only 3 hrs. Regardless, the toe warmers have a sticky backing to go on your sock and under your toes. I put them on the top of my toes so it wouldn't effect my pedal stroke, and the adhesive backing held them perfectly in place. I could feel the warm right away and I am more than happy to say it lasted a whole 3 hrs. They wore out after that, but they worked great nonetheless. I picked up a ton more toe warmer after this test, they are worth every penny! I got them at MEC. This group of riders, Peter's group, had some experience all-mountain riders. They were taking skinnys and drops and risks that I wouldn't normally do. I had my fair share of skinny attempts back in the summer and after a few nasty crashes I decided I would avoid them from now on. I'll work on my plank-riding in the spring. I've never been good at it. The jumps and drops I avoid. My bike is cross-country racing bike, it doesn't have the plush suspension that these guys had. It looked like fun, but again I set limits on my 'risk taking' to prevent injury and effecting my training routine. Peer pressure and all, I felt a bit like a wuss not doing some of the 'easy' looking stuff. While there wasn't really anything 'wuss' about it but still, I would have like to of at least made one attempt on some of the stunts.

These long weekends are throwing a wrench into my training routine. I am not complaining though, that was some of the best winter cycling I have ever had! The one hour Bike Trainer ride was replaced with an outdoor mountain bike ride. 3.5hrs of it! In turn, I missed my run since the majority of the day was already spent outdoors and my workout clothes needed to be cleaned. Yes, that is me making excuses for missing the run. I am OK with this since I am going to move the run to Wednesday night after work. I should have enough time to get a run in, eat and relax (warm-up) in time for the scheduled swim. The JPO program is flexible like that, I always have 'bail-out' slots of time that allow me to reschedule things. Although I hate missing ANY workout ever.

Bad news is I'm up a few pounds. Not going to worry about it now, my muscles are sore and I had a tons of salt on the weekend so it's probably mostly water. I'll have a more accurate reading on the weekend probably.

TRAINING:
Tuesday: Bike: 3.5hrs (MTB)
Monday: Swim 45mins
Skipped Run, reschduled to Wednesday