2010 begins

So here we are, it is 2010. Do you know what that means? It means that now it will only be 5 more years before we all find out if the world as depicted in Back to the Future Part II becomes a reality. We only need hoverboards, flying cars, thumb print scanners for our front doors and paying for stuff, jackets that automatically dry themselves, and robot gas station attendants. I think we can pull it off.

Ok, really what does it mean? Not a whole lot. It mostly means that the holiday fun is over and now we're just facing the harsh realities of a long, cold winter. Although I suppose we've actually been pretty lucky around here in that it hasn't been abnormally cold as it has been for much of the rest of the country. Sure, it snowed for like 3 days in a row this past weekend, but it didn't snow a lot and we haven't been well below zero. I even heard that the temperature in Disney World is in the 40's. Heck of a time for a Florida vacation.

I personally rang in the new year by going to bed at 10 and staying asleep until 8:30, which to me is like noon. You see, every year right around January 1st I tend to get my annual cold. So I definitely wasn't up for partying the night away (I never am, really) and staying up until midnight. This year my cold has been annoyingly persistent, as I'm still kind of a wreck and I've had it since before Christmas. So I've been a ton of fun lately, but hopefully it will all go away soon.

What else? Training, training, training. This being the first week back after the new year means of course that the gym is especially crowded. It's almost comical, really, how predictable it all is. Every single year for probably merely three weeks it is more crowded than you've ever seen it, and then they all just seem to disappear. My strategy is to beat them all there, because while many people resolve to go to the gym, most don't plan on being there at 5am.

I would say that 95% of the time at my pool I do not have to share a lane. There are even those rare mornings where I can do a whole swim workout and never even have to share the pool. So far this week I've managed to avoid sharing, but I will say that the pool has been by far more crowded than I've ever seen it, minus the times when the swim team has practice. Yesterday when I got out, of the 6 lanes I was the only one who wasn't sharing. Apparently I'm just that intimidating... ok, that's probably not the real reason. I'm sure most of them will go away soon, but it does get kind of annoying. And really, guys, if you're not willing to invest in a real training swimsuit and insist on doing your "workout" in your board shorts, I'm really not sure that the pool is for you. Like I said though, most of them will be gone soon, except for the few other people who I do see there all year round. You people can stay.

I've been running in the cold, although fortunately it hasn't been quite as frigid as it was earlier. I even got to run in the sun yesterday. Who knows, maybe I'll even get a bit of a tan. Only on my face, of course, since everything else is covered in layers. On the bike I've been trying my Powercranks which are supposed to actually make me a better runner, or maybe find that runner that was inside of me for a year or so before she went into hiding starting sometime in 2007. We got off to a very rocky start when there was a part missing, only I didn't know there was a part missing, so I thought I was just doing something wrong when I would spin the cranks right off the bike every few revolutions. But now that they are actually attached maybe I will get somewhere. Right now it just feels like we've taken the one thing I'm actually kind of good at and made that really hard too.

Lots of trainer time also means lots and lots of movie and TV time. I'm still on the fence on what TV series to watch, and find myself leaning towards Lost for some reason. I've never seen a single episode, even though it seems like it's something I'd really like. I've mostly been doing movies lately, as well as using my Netflix subscription thanks to my brother's Christmas present. And needing to kill time I even find myself watching the DVD special features. You know, when you watch the deleted scenes and almost immediately think to yourself, "Yeah, I can see why they would've cut that out." But hey, it kills the time, right? I also sometimes watch old favorites that I haven't seen in a long time. For my last long ride I went with True Lies. That movie is GREAT. If you haven't noticed yet, you will not usually catch me watching deep, meaningful movies. I really just like them fun and entertaining.

Speaking of entertaining, I'm guessing reading this isn't anymore, so I'll leave it at that. Time for more Airborne to try and fight off my cold.