It looked for a minute like the cold weather had finally broken on Saturday for our group workout. It was a 60' ride down at Haines Point to better simulate the conditions in St. Petersburg: flat and potentially windy. The "short" loop at Haines Point is a hair over 3 miles, and on a day like Saturday the wind is coming directly up the Potomac giving a nice headwind in one direction and a tailwind in the other. The temps were in the 40s when rode down to meet the group (finally a workout we can ride to!), and reached the low 50s by the end. This was really the first time I was able to try out my aerobars for any extended period of time. They were actually more comfortable than they are on the trainer, but the handling is really squirrelly until you get used to it. I was all over the road at first and made sure I was by myself before trying them. With the wind it actually made a big difference. On the headwind stretch it was much easier to hold pace, and when I switched to the normal bar position I instantly slowed down even though I felt like I was riding with the same effort. One bad side effect: a really sore neck from having to keep my head up. That's not an issue on the trainer! Overall I was pretty pleased with the 20 mile or so ride.
Afterwards the coaches did another hands on tire changing clinic. In the race you are on your own; you'll get disqualified if you receive any help out on the course, so not being able to change a flat would essentially end your day. They're going to pick a few people at random to practice changing tires at every group ride from now on until everybody's done it at least once. I was one of the lucky first victims. I've changed my MTB tires a number of times, but for some reason those skinny road tires scare me. It was a bit of a struggle to seat the tube correctly, but after a couple tries I got it straightened out and it didn't pinch flat like I was worried it would! Also: CO2 inflation cartridges = awesome.
This week we start building again. Tomorrow's swim workout looks challenging, 2400 yards; depending on who shows up in the Level 3 lane I may get my ass kicked. Forecast is back to gloomy cold and snow potential, so the runs might be tough. 70' on Thursday!! Yikes. Not looking forward to yet another "longest I have ever run" run if it's in the 30s again. More trainer sessions tonight and Wednesday. Brick on Saturday is 115' ride/25' run. I really hope it's at least in the upper 40s for that, and it's out in Sterling again. Ugh. Sunday we're running the St Patrick's Day 5K up in Baltimore which should be fun, 3,000 runners possibly. I wonder how many of them will forget to change their clocks and show up an hour early?
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