Is February over yet?

When it comes to the weather around here, it seems that often times we will fall into a bit of a pattern. Last winter I remember there always seemed to be snowstorms on Monday mornings. I also recall that it was also always especially cold and windy whenever it was time for me to do my hill running workout. This year, although snow has been notably (and quite thankfully, I might add) absent, but it seems that Sunday has taken over as the especially cold and always super windy day. How do I notice this? Because Sunday is the day in which I have to do my long run and spend the most time outside fighting the elements. And trust me, when Sunday rolls around and once again it's time for me to head out with windchills in the single digits or possibly even below zero, I remember that merely seven days prior I had to do the same thing.

I like to think of myself as someone who isn't a weather wimp. I ride in the rain, I ride in the cold, I run in the same. The weather race day could very well suck (and somehow it so often does) so you might as well get used to it. However, there are times when it just starts getting old. Last weekend I returned from my long run with ice formed from my sweat in the liner of my jacket. This weekend I had the infamous split long run, where I'd run an hour, then go out and run another hour later on in the day after a bike ride. I guess the good news was that although there was enough time for ice to form, I had to work up the motivation to head out into the cold twice. And the second time is even harder because I don't exactly have a vast array of wardrobe options when it comes to incredibly cold weather. So my warmest jacket - the only one adequate to run in under such windy conditions - of course did not have time to dry between runs. Hat and gloves? Nope. I put them all in front of the fire, but it didn't help. At least I'd be starting in a clean shirt, socks and tights, but it still wasn't very much fun.

But hey, I guess I should at least be glad it's not snowing. Which is more than I can say for the mid atlantic. Nope, we're dry as can be up here, which is why it's so cold and windy. The sun is out a lot, which does little to help in warming things up.

Ok, if you're still reading after a boring, several-paragraph tirade on the cold weather, I guess I'll mention that the other night we had a little QT2 bowling night to show off a different set of "skills". I use the term quite loosely, you'll see. I hadn't been bowling in about a year-and-a-half, and I know that time was candlepin. Can't recall the last time I went "real" bowling. Fortunately, it appeared that for the most part my teammates weren't a whole lot better off than I was. Still, it was a fun evening and nice to get out and do something normal instead of getting together with the same people to swim, bike, run, race, etc. When we're out of season and not seeing each other a lot, it starts to feel pretty isolated.