Enough with the rain already!

For some strange reason it has been decided that those of us who live in the northeast should be punished with never-ending rain and clouds. My biggest issue with this happening now is that when you live here, you get about a 12-week window for really good weather out of the 52 of the year. So when you take away large chunks of this window it really gets demoralizing, because before you know it, it's going to be November again with no chance of warmth for at least 6 months... unless of course we are blessed with another crappy spring. The sun came out for about a day and a half this week after almost two weeks of rain and very unseasonably cold temperatures. Then it started raining again, and is forecast to do so for as long as they will make forecasts. I'd like for someone to tell me of somewhere that is experiencing a severe drought that has no end in sight, because I'd like to go there, please.

But of course, the training continues anyway. I got two rides in the sun this week, amazingly enough, and so far two rides in the rain. In fact, after my ride yesterday I actually found my fingers were cold enough that I had trouble manipulating things and it took about 2 hours before the overall chill subsided. That is ridiculous for this time of year. And yesterday afternoon, when I was resting between repeats in my track workout, I realized through the rain that I could actually see my breath. I'm starting to go a little insane. We suffer through winter and are supposed to be rewarded with nice summers. Instead, I'm getting never-ending March and it's starting to drive me a little insane.

We're coming up on 5 weeks to go before race day. I'm glad it's 5 and not 4, thanks to moving the race out a week. I had a terrible track workout yesterday because they're all terrible. Although it made me feel a lot better when I saw that in 2006 I ran a similar workout with a few similar splits for the mile repeats, and at the time I thought that was pretty good. I don't know what is wrong with me and trying to go fast, but I apparently just have no anaerobic capacity at all. Muscles start to burn at scary-low paces and that's about it from me. Not sure if this is something that can be fixed through training or if it is more of a genetic disability, but in the meantime, I'll continue to do longer races.

Up for tomorrow is another long ride, but amazingly there are only a few of these left. I'm going to have to start really early because it happens to be motorcycle week here in NH. So tens of thousands (maybe more, I'm not really sure) of motorcycle enthusiasts come from all over the country to gather together and do whatever it is that they do. This includes riding all over the lakes region in large packs and mobbing the parking lots of local establishments. The thing that bothers me about this is that I do not at all understand how motorcycles can make 50 times as much noise as a car when they are so much smaller. It can be hard to sleep indoors with the windows closed, so it's not so fun when they are buzzing right by my ear as I pedal along on my bike. And I swear some of them purposely try to pop their engines just as they go by me. The rain has not deterred them, so tomorrow will be interesting. I figure I'll get in two peaceful hours before the madness begins. And maybe, just maybe, the rain will hold out.