No motivation

I don't know what it is but I just can't get motivated in this cold weather.  I was listening to the wind gusting last night and decided not to go to the gym.  I just see no fun in running to the gym in 20 degree weather with 20 mph winds just to swim 30 minutes before taking the spin class.  Sure, I could drive but the amount of time is the same basically and I don't get a nice run.  It's a 10 minute drive because of lights and traffic on way home while just being a 22 minute run.  Sure I stay warm but the only benefit is swimming and the spin class.

I've started rationalizing my lack of motivation.  It's really the cold weather.  If it was even 40 something this morning, I would've made the trek.  So what's this all mean, well my swimming is currently taking a back seat in training.  I've plateaued at 1:50s for the 100 it seems right now.  I have all kinds of form problems but I also have strength issues as well.  It just hurts to pull a bunch of water.  It's similar on the bike, it hurts to turn bigger gears fast.  Everyone says if you can run fast but you swim slow it's your form.  I have to agree.  I saw this lady at the pool just cruising along at 1:40 or so.  I looked at her form at the end of my workout to see if I could notice anything.  Nothing really jumped out except just a smooth stroke and a very small profile.  She was also flip turning which is about 5 seconds.  After all that blah blah, the basics in my head are why suffer the cold and swim more when it just won't help.  When it's warmer, I'll feel better about running in the morning to the pool.

Now the spin class is a whole different story.  My cycling is so non-existent spin class or not it just won't matter.  I think maybe I should setup the trainer but nah.  I'm going to experiment with really no cycling through the winter and see if my May half will suffer. It shouldn't right?  I mean it's only biggest percentage of time during a half ironman of all the three disciplines and being tired after it really sets you up for a great run.  Assuming by great, I mean walking the run course a bunch.  Oh god, I'm screwed!!

The good news is my running.  Surprised?  Probably not since it's my strength and I've been putting in a lot of training.  Yesterday, in the middle of my 6ish mile run I saw a little hottie running towards me at a nice clip.  I waved as I do with all runners coming in the opposite direction not just hotties but she ignored me.  So me being a little petty decided to see if I could catch her.  She had a 300 meter head start so I upped my pace quite a bit from just relaxing to pushing.  Unfortunately, she turned around at the next intersection before I could catch her.  I waved again as we passed and still nothing.  Incensed in anger at a 2nd dis, I pressed forward.

Nah, I wasn't angry.  It's pretty normal.  I wave at all runners fast or slow and I probably get a return wave or acknowledgment about 50% of the time.  It's quite low when you think about it.  A wave while running requires almost no effort.  I also wave on the bike and my return rate is about 30% but that's understandable because it does require some effort.  There's no waving in swimming.  Waving is for wimps.  It's all business!!

Luckily, I have mile markers all mapped out for this run.  I was surprised to see a 6:24 mile.  I just ready to be disappointed with what felt to be a good pace to be a slow 6:55 or so.  It still felt hard for 6:24 as I thought back to my running heyday when I could run 6:30s in my sleep especially on such a flat course.  Now the next mile has a little hill in it and it's really the only long hill close to me, I was able to run a 6:37.  This felt good as I really didn't slow down much.  It's still January so this is okay.  To quote Herm Edwards the former Kansas City Chiefs head coach, "We can build on this."

Since I skipped all the morning festivities, I'll be doing my hard workout for the week.  30 second bursts followed by 30 seconds of rest, fartleks for you runners out there.  I'm hoping that this will help my leg turnover(speed).  Overall, this is a pretty easy workout.  It's not like one of those killer late spring fartleks where you do 3 minute on and 90 seconds off but it's a good start.

Another thing going pretty well is the diet.  The nasty junk food is out due to me not buying it.  I'm going back to my standard diet of rice, protein, pasta, and more rice.  My old Endurox buckets are filled with 25 lbs of rice waiting to be devoured.  Hopefully, this will keep the weight steady until the weather gets warmer and major cycling work begins.

The brighter side of the winter training is coming up as I travel back to Oregon for business.  I'm hoping for some mild Oregon weather 40s or maybe 50s would be awesome.  Of course, the old running partners will be ready to hurt me.  I can see some brutal jaunts through the countryside.  Another benefit of going to Oregon is no sales tax.  This trip the plan is get a Macbook Pro.  Probably the 15".

The 17" could be interesting but it might be just too big.  I'm finally abandoning Microsoft.  I decided back in September when XP just basically slowed to a crawl again on my computer.  I had already done a brand new clean install when it happened in early 2007.  I just got fed up.  Plus with Apple you can still run XP if you need to.  Combine that with video editing I would like to do Apple is an easy choice.  I've only waited this long as I just wasn't sure between desktop IMac or laptop.  Based on the new laptop updates, it will be enough horsepower to run the video editing but with that added portable convenience.  Anyway by avoiding sales tax, I'm going to save around 200 dollars.  On top of that I'll be hip when I go to coffee shops with my Macbook.  Okay, poser is more accurate.

Another interesting side point of owning an Apple, is being able to get on the IPhone App gravy train.  I just have to come up with some cool 99 cent app that at least a million IPhone users will want and voila...millionaire.  I'm sure it's that easy.