What I Love Lately

This time of year seems to drag on and on. Winter seems like it will never end, and getting to the starting line of the first race of the season seems so far away. Goals, improved perform ace, "qualifying", beating "x" training partner in the race" or hanging on in group ride are all worthy and motivating to crawl out of bed at 5:00a.m. or bundle up in all the many layers just to go run. But, here are some of the things I love lately about training to keep me going until spring decides to show up:

1. Nike Lunar Glides: I LOVE this running shoe. It is super light weight, but has a little stability and control. It tends to run a little narrow so if you have a wide foot you might not like it as much as me, but I have been loving doing long runs, tempo runs, and speedy runs in them. Right now I have 3 pair that I rotate around.



2. NNHS Masters swimming: I joined a new masters team this year, and it involves a 30-40 min drive to Naperville, but it is so worth it to swim in a big 12 lane, brand new, real swimmer pool. The workouts are TOUGH, and I get to swim with some old training friends, and some new.

3. Trips to Tuscon with Adam: A mid-winter trip to Tuscon and riding with Adam trying to stay on his wheel is quite motivating to keep my butt in gear, plus views from the top of Mt. Lemmon and Gates pass are always worth the work to get there.


4. Vancouver 2010: I LOVE the Olympics. It is amazing to watch these athletes in all these other sports compete at the highest level. Their stories are incredible, and I love hearing how they get to where they are in sport. I was glued to men's ski cross the other day, hearing about this guy (forgot his name sorry) who at 1 point was dealing with some big issues with drugs and alcohol and was found passed out in a river 1 night in Vail CO. He overcame these issues and was skiing for gold in Vancouver. I sat there crying because he crashed in the finals. I wanted him to win. But in his interview he said he wanted gold, not bronze so he went for it over a hill and launched himself so high/far to try to move up to first that he lost control and crashed. That's hard core! and the Olympic spirit.




5. More daylight: last night I noticed it was still fairly light at almost 6 o'clock. There's a sign spring is coming and Colonial rides will be starting.......that alone is enough to keep me on the trainer.

6. Breakthrough workouts for my athletes: I helped an athlete through a personal 10k run (since there are so many around here this time of year... we made our own). In the cold snow covered neighborhood he pushed himself to a new level! My Boston runner has "torched" his long runs more than once. All the data on HR, paces, cadence, charts and graphs are wonderful tools to see progress measure and track fitness for athletes but seeing an athlete just dig deep and and push to a new level in their workouts is so exciting.

7. Run workouts from Simon: My coach has been giving me some really good run workouts this winter. I love that he isn't afraid to give me quality/ speed focused workouts to do even this time of year.

8. My Skinfit Parka: Adam gave me this awesome Skinfit down parka back in like Oct. because I hate being cold....and I am cold a lot. This coat is so comfy and warm I practically live in it.


I have had a little more motivation and fun training this winter with the help of all of the above. Go "torch" your winter workouts! Yes, I stole this quote from the log of my Boston runner!