A Ride In Paradise

I'd like to thank all the people I follow on twitter from Denver for making it seem like we live in paradise here! It may have been cold (38 degrees to be exact) and windy, but at least we've still got dry, clear roads, and the sun was shining! To top it off Pete was at home, and Elle was taking a nap. How could I not go for a ride?

I donned my nice, cold-weather gear (if you look closely, everything except my helmet have the little pearl izumi logo on it. Pete used to work there, and he gave me all of this stuff.) and headed out. I also added a light jacket on top.

I was a little worried that I would be wanting a hat, but my head was fine, and my face was only cold for less than 10 minutes. The only things that were a little too cold were my toes. Nice and numb when I got back. I guess it's time for the toe covers.

I did a 1-hour ride on pretty flat roads. I had a headwind on the way out so that meant I got to have fun on the way back. The wind must not have been helping me too much, though, because I never got going more than 22mph (borrrring!). Just kidding, it wasn't a boring ride. It was fun to just go out and push it really hard. I tried to keep it at a harder gear than I would normally use, and kept reminding myself that this was just for an hour.

I was kind of disappointed to get back after exactly an hour, and only have gone 14.8 miles. That's pretty pathetic for what I thought was going to be a speedy, flat ride. Oh well. It was good to get out. It had been too long. I hadn't been out since my ride up City Creek Canyon, almost 2 weeks ago!

I was thinking about how awesome it will be to just focus on running this winter and get faster at that, but then I don't want my biking to suffer while I do that, and I haven't been swimming either. I hope I don't lose all the progress I made there this year. What's a girl to do? How can I get it all in without the crazy hours of my Ironman training?

Don't get me wrong, I loved training for Ironman, and I really miss it, but I also don't want to spend that much time away from my family again, at least not for a while.

If I get faster at running, that will help my times the most so I think it's a good thing to focus on. I'll just try to keep spinning on the side.