It's Monday... and it's NOT snowing!

An incredible thing happened this morning: it didn't snow. I didn't have to think about when I was going to get my swim in, or if the gym was even going to open due to bad weather. I could just get up and go. It was fantastic. That easy, Monday swim always makes me feel better after a grueling weekend of training, so it was nice to finally be able to get it in early in the morning for the first time in I believe three weeks. According to the calendar spring starts on Friday, and it is finally starting to look like it around here. I won't complain about the black snowbanks that are left behind, because the blacker they are, the less snow there is, even if it is pretty disgusting to look at.

Yesterday was another tough day of training. An interesting one, too, although not in the same way that Saturday's training was interesting, (frozen bottles) thankfully. It started out with an hour-long run. I have not done a run as my first workout of the day in I think four months or so, since all of my runs now come after bike rides, so that was a change. It used to be how I did all of my runs, typically as the sun was coming up. I do notice that running later in the day usually makes me faster, but I still always enjoyed running in the morning and feeling accomplished so early upon arriving home. So this was different. It was in the mid 20's when I went out, colder than it's been lately but again I was finally able to go out when my hair wasn't sweat-soaked underneath my hat so that was helpful in the situation. My legs felt tight and tired from the day before, but I got through it.

That was only the beginning though. After a little break with the Sunday paper, I headed out on my bike for a couple of hours. The nice part about this ride is that it was supposed to be nice and easy. It actually made my legs feel a whole lot better. By then it was sunny and in the mid 40's, which relatively speaking is nice and warm. Then, after finishing up with that, it was time to change back into the run shoes, put on some shorts and head out for an hour and fifteen minutes more of running. I've never really done anything quite like that. I'm sure I've run more than once in a day at least a couple of times, but never that long for each. For the first time in a very long time my heart rate was actually too low when I was running. I wasn't going much slower than the first run, but it was just way lower. It might have been my own fault for kind of feeling nervous that I could crack at any moment, but I don't really know. I do know that when I was finally finished for the day I was very glad to have another successfully completed week of training behind me. Two more tough weeks to go before the taper for California. I still can't believe how close that race is. If they didn't keep moving it then it would probably be this weekend, which is even scarier to think about. I wonder where my wetsuit is? At least I know that it will fit this time!

Oh, and on a totally unrelated note, I just have to offer this one thing. I don't usually talk about anything political but this is driving me crazy: How exactly did AIG intend to pay these "contractually obligated" bonuses had the government not given them all of that money?