Winter Training

The holidays have passed and now its time to get down to business. I had a great time with the family in Vermont for Christmas, and a fun trip to New York to see Annie and go to a cool concert, but I have to admit I missed training and am very ready to get back to the grind.

My brother got me the first season of Spartacus on DVD for Christmas, and if you haven't seen it I highly recommend it. The show is violent and graphic, so don't watch it with your kids or Grandma. The story revolves around a man forced into slavery who becomes the greatest gladiator the Roman Empire has ever seen. Even though the Roman games are very different from triathlon, watching scenes of training and competing made me want to get out and train hard after each episode.

And that I did. My New Year's resolution is to never use the weather as an excuse not to train, and I have been true to it so far. Cycling is typically the most difficult sport to train for in the Winter, but I've picked up a few tricks already to make it possible. The indoor trainers to which you mount your bike are one obvious solution, but living in a shared apartment building and having a trainer louder than most vacuum cleaners, it is a little obnoxious. After shoveling a few square feet of ground outside my home, I mounted the trainer there, and with a good pair of gloves and a heavy sweatshirt, the cold is bearable enough to get in a solid workout.

The YMCA also makes training through the Winter feasible. With a pool open for lap swimming from 5am til 10pm most days, there's never a reason not to knock out a few laps. And there are enough treadmills to run a small cross country team, as well as a 180 meter track upstairs for faster paced running. I've also learned to love some of the group cycling classes, and my mountain bike shoes can clip right into the machines for a real cycling workout! John's class, the Sunday morning advanced cycling class, is hands down my favorite. Unlike the typical spin classes that cater to weight loss and toned legs, John runs a class that makes you fit for real cycling. His class simulates the demands of flat time trialing and low cadence climbing that you see out on the roads.

With that said, cycling outdoors is still my favorite workout. Today the weather warmed up to 36 Fahrenheit, practically a heat wave! With the sun shining, I suited up and got almost an hour of hard hill work in before my toes started going numb. This blog is not intended to endorse any companies, but I highly recommend base layers by Under Armour and Louis Garneau cycling warm gear. Today I wore a thin pair of UA glove and heavy LG winter gloves and my fingers loved every second of it. The biggest limiter to my outdoor cycling, my toes, had no complaints about the two pairs of socks plus LG neoprene shoe covers. And if you've ever hated the wind abusing your face and neck while cycling, look no further than the UA ski mask, which keeps the neck, forehead, and face content in cold weather.

If you've never seen What it Takes, a documentary about a few professional triathletes, I highly recommend it. There is a scene when Canadian Peter Reid takes his mountain bike out on the town through a mild snow storm for a three hour ride. This scene has always stuck with me, and while training in the southern Adirondacks I can't help but relate to Peter, a man who managed to win the Ironman World Championship three times despite having to train through cold winters in Canada. In the movie he said something to the extent of "I get home and think that was stupid, why would I do that to myself, but then I think about how none of my competitors are doing this, so I got a little bit of strength out of today that they didn't." Not a perfect quote, but you get the gist of it. I am going to do my best to emulate Peter's winning attitude this Winter, and emerge from the cold this Spring a step ahead of my competition.

My first race is on March 23, the HITS Half Iron distance in Ocala, Florida. I can't afford to wait until the snow is gone to be on my bike with such an early season race, so I will keep bundling up and pushing for fitness. Thanks for reading, stay warm!