Whose idea was it to plan the heaviest training around the holidays??  Doesn’t Ironman New Zealand know this?

Middle Tennessee has also had some pretty brutal weather this past week.  Not a problem when you are strength training or swimming, problem when you are running and biking.  Layering up has become an art form, especially when you throw in a little rain.  Jesse has been skiing with Ben in Colorado and has taken the camera with him, so at this point there is no pictoral evidence of my new system:  when I cycle in the cold, I can get everything comfortable except my face and eyes, so…I have been wearing ski goggles.  Laugh if you will, honk if you pass me, I don’t care – I’m warm, I can see, and I don’t lose my speed to keep from getting too cold!  To help you picture it:  bike helmet, scarf around my neck, ski goggles, and a smile that comes with a great training effort!

The new bike is fantastic; I put it in the shop yesterday to have the computer and aerobars installed.  It is such a race car and I couldn’t be happier with it.  Now I have new running shoes and I can’t wait til Monday’s brick to try them out. 

Just learned that the camera was a casualty in a fall Jesses took on the slopes, so it may be a while before I can post pictures again.  I head out to Colorado on Saturday to have Christmas with the kids at Ben’s house, but I’ll keep up the training and blogging…we’re down to about 80 days til race day.

Thanks for reading!