Not the best training day ever.  Might be the worst.

Most everyone who reads the blog knows that I came down south to Panama City Beach to my generous brother’s condo to train in some of that Florida sunshine.  (Good call, so it seemed, since Murfreesboro got snow-dumped on, then iced, since I’ve been gone.)  However, the same system that went through the rest of the south caught the panhandle of Florida too.  Today’s high was forecast to have been 55 degrees.  In reality, it was 43 degrees with a wind chill of 36.  That’s effing cold.  Especially on a bike.

I made an attempt to swim in the bay, but with that air temperature, it wasn’t much of an attempt….wading out to my ankles in frigid water.

not too flattering, but this is mom's view from the car

Went with plan B, which was to return to the condo’s indoor pool and swim about in the wetsuit.  It was too warm to do that, but I’m all about the flexibility.

inside pool, nice and toasty

After that, I punted again, because of the cold and chose to run, so on with the running clothes and out the door.  Eric’s condo is on the 19th of 23 floors so I chose to do the stairwells for today’s workout.  An hour and 50 minutes later, off with the running stuff, on with the bike stuff, and out the door for an 80k.

my salvation on the arctic bike ride!

(Working to resolve the sideways pic issue…).

Anyway, just a sucky training day altogether, but you have those.  Makes the good days even better.  Race is 5 weeks from yesterday.  Skyping Sam in New Zealand as I write this and his massive race (Coast-to-coast New Zealand) is two weeks away, but he seems far more calm and collected than his mom.

So much for sunny Florida – it’s even too cold for the iPod to work, so the song in my head is Mick Jagger singing something about not getting no satisfaction…

Thanks for letting me gripe…it’s therapeutic for me!

Thanks for reading!

Lovely non-view from the 19th floor - that's the Gulf down there somewhere