W-w-w-workout with a c-c-c-clock

And that's what happens when you try and type with frozen fingers. Which is how my Saturday started. I got up early and bundled up for a short ride over to the site of this year's Tri-Fusion Workout with a Clock. I never knew just how cold your hands can get in only 4 miles of riding, but by the time I arrived, they were just about frozen. Even though it was clear and sunny, I don't think it was above 30 degrees. Yikes. But, I'm pretty proud of myself for getting out there and doing this "race", because anyone that knows me knows how much I dislike being cold.

Anyway, after waiting for it to warm up and to see how many people would be man enough to show up, it turned out that there were only 7 of us crazy enough to do it.

The start.....from L: Steve, me, Jessi, Tracie, Jim, Eric, Roger

I actually got fairly warmed up on the first run, which was good because after my bike over to the start, I was worried about being cold on the bike. But the bike turned out to be an awesome ride. After a fairly successful T1 (no falling, and I tried out my shoes on bike trick for the first time...good, but still needs work), I was quickly caught by Steve and Jessi. I got on their wheels and we had a good little pace line going, because, hey, the race director didn't say anything about drafting! :) I did a little of the pulling, but not as much as I should have.... Then we caught Eric, so we ended up having a nice, quick bike. I think we averaged about 20mph, which I'm pretty happy with at this point in the year. My T2 was decent, considering I had gloves and many many layers on. The second run felt surprisingly OK, except for the fact that I still haven't figured out how to run downhill. I put some time into Steve on the uphill out to the turnaround, then watched him pull away and smoke me on the downhill....nice work, dude!!!

Even so, I was still smiling at the finish, and had managed to even lose one of my 18 layers!

It was a great day, and I also have to give out some big-time thanks to Matt who volunteered to hold my bike in T1 and catch it in T2...thanks buddy!!! And also to Mark and the wonderful volunteers who froze their butts off so that we could get a workout in. You guys are awesome!!!

Later in the afternoon, I was supposed to meet up with Jen and Zach to do a brick out in CDA, but that plan fell apart, which in the grand scheme of things probably wasn't a bad thing. One hard effort per day is probably sufficient at this point.......And then I looked at the Scates' pictures of their ride out there, and they looked cold while they were trying to navigate the snow on the roads! :) Oh well, I guess my first ride on the IM course will have to wait.......