Feelin' the wind in my teeth; sagebrush and a block

Yep, that's right, my teeth.  

Because my hair is always pulled back when I go running.  And my teeth aren't perfect so the wind can go between them.  

Except it makes them cold.  

Especially since we have this glorious cold snap going on again.  Back to running with gloves on.  What an annoyance, especially after running in a tee and capris on Friday.  But hey-I did it again. 

Ran without walking that is.  Especially since I ran w/out music yesterday.  I figure if they won't let me use my Ipod during the triathlon, I may as well start practicing w/out it.  A bit harder to zone out w/out the music, but interesting to see where my thoughts went.  

That's big for someone who subscribed (until fairly recently) to the the theory that one should not run unless being chased by a large dog, or someone with a gun.  

Now I appreciate it though.  Besides-this is my view:

Granted, I usually run when there's more light out, but how do you beat that?  It's nice to run away from things out into a lot of open space.  

 

It's kind of nice to have 40min uninterrupted just out in the open.  Even if the wind is cutting right through my clothes, just short of blowing me completely off the trail and half my body is numb.  It feels good sucking in the smell of sagebrush.  It reminds me of all those camping trips to the middle of nowhere when I was a kid.  I love that smell.  Especially right after it rains.  Snow doesn't quite evoke the same "freshness" smell out of the sagebrush.   The trail I usually take runs through plenty of this.  It smells good out there.

Hopefully I can start increasing my distance at a decent pace. 

So the block-two different workouts right on top of each other.  Shorter than the real event will be, but I did it anyway.  Biked then ran.   Typically my legs feel like Jell-O after biking, so I've worried about how on earth I'll be able to walk, let alone run after a decent ride.  After swimming. 

Last week I only biked 5 and ran 2 (the real thing is biking 12.6 and running 3), but a decent first block with plenty of time to add milage over the next 6 weeks, assuming my body keeps cooperating.  The goal for this weekend (barring snow, which wouldn't be surprising) is bike 7 and run 2.5-3.  

And I just realized that the swim for this tri is only 300 meters, not 400.  

I might just make it after all.