Blue Lights On The Runway

AM: 25 Miles, Road, Chester Ct.

Awful doesn't begin to describe today's aborted training session. For some reason the winter refuses to leave the North East. I jumped out of bed ready for a 14.5 mile time trial to be followed by a 2 hour hard ride. I made it through the warm up, if I can call it that and called it a day. The situation was dire. Not to go on about the weather but it was 40 and lashing rain with strong winds. Funny enough it didn;t seem too bad and I was still motivated to join the other 6 seasoned cyclists. One difference though is that I am an AMATURE and a journeyman when it comes to the bike. My running tights, base layer and wind breaker was no where near enough clothing. After 15 miles I could not feel my upper body and my arms were shaking uncontrollably. After 20 miles I could no longer pull my breaks due to my hands being froze to the handle bars. I have rarely been this cold and once the warm up was over, Dan (team captain of sorts) told me to get my ass in the shower. These guys all had gore-tex cycling jackets and water proof everything. I on the otherhand thought I'd be fine in running gear. Idiot. Being stubborn I was determined to get changed, borrow a water proof coat and catch up but it was futile. I was shivering so bad that I could not get my base layer off. It was stuck to my skin. Everything however came right when I noticed 2 of the guys coming with me into the house. They too were abandoning for similar reasons. They had all the gear but lack of a water proof jacket had them hitting the showers. These are both cat 2 riders who assured me that I was doing the right thing and that I was a little silly for assuming a wind breaker and one base layer was going to cut it. The rest of the guys had a good time trial but bagged the 2 hour ride after and came in. All in all it was a bit of a wash and I feel very unsatisfied. I wanted to get on the trainer but felt damp all day and besides I had a party to attend in Boston.

Tom McArdle is trying to make fun of me on his blog. Its embarrassing. How the mighty have fallen. Today I spent a lot of time listening to my newest purchases and I am impressed with the new Bell X1 album. Its called Blue Lights On The Runway and has a very Talking Heads feel. I heard it when I was at home driving to the park for a run with Vinny and I immediately enjoyed it. The run was great too even if it does seem like a distant memory now. Check out "The Great Defector" track in the youtube, its awesome and this live version is very cool.

The heart must go on,

Love Kel