SPRING HAS SPRUNG!!

I know, I know, people everywhere are saying spring has sprung, but trust me, it bears repeating. I could not possibly be happier with this warm(er) and sunny weather. It's so nice not to dread going outside! I'm convinced I am meant to leave in a warmer climate; if I could be a snow bird at the ripe old age of 25, I definitely would. Spending April to November in the Northeast and December to March somewhere warmer sounds perfect! I could run in shorts and ride my bike outside year round! 

Those are the two things I was overly excited to be able to do this week. Yesterday morning it was already close to 50 degrees, with not a cloud in the sky, when I headed out for my run. (I won't tell you what time that was, because those of you who work a conventional 9-5 job would probably hate me). I debated wearing capris, but I decided to be optimistic and go with my Mizuno shorts.

As a side note, I think I've decided I really dislike these shorts. Before I bought them last year, I was a strict Nike Tempo short girl, and I think that's what I'm going to stick with from here on out. The Mizuno's feel too flimsy, for lack of a better word, and the built-in liner does nothing except ride up my butt. (Yes, I am one of those people who doesn't wear undies when shorts have a liner). I have no idea if the liner of the Nike shorts provides any type of support, but when I was running in the Mizunos yesterday, I swear I could feel my butt jiggling up and down, which is not something I usually experience. It could just be that my rear end is growing, but I prefer to blame it on the shorts. Do you have a favorite pair or style of shorts for running?

ANYWAY, enough with that tangent. Out the door I went in my shorts and a light long-sleeve shirt, to do the first speed workout of my half marathon training plan. I was a little bit nervous, because I hadn't done any type of organized speed training since at least college, and I have very vivid memories of painful workouts on the track in high school (400 meter repeats with a decreasing rest period between each, anyone? Barf). The plan (which I printed out and painstakingly decorated) said to do 5x400 meters at 5k pace, with equal rest. I could have driven to a track, but I chose not to, for a few different reasons. 1.) I'm not going to be running the half marathon on a track. 2.) Driving to a track and driving back meant having to get up earlier to make it to work on time. 3.) I was afraid that if I used the track at the university, I'd be schooled (haha, pun, get it?) by college students working out.

Instead, I took my trusty Garmin, picked a starting point, ran .25 of a mile, figured out my end point, and finished the loop of the block, which conveniently turned out to be .48 of a mile, total. (That roughly half a mile served as my warm-up). I ran .25 hard, and .23 easy to recover, 5 times. Dare I say I enjoyed it? It switched things up and made the run go by a lot faster than usual. I think the men working on the exterior of one of the houses I kept running by wondered what the hell I was doing, but I just acted like I was "in the zone" and training for something really important so they would think I was a bad ass. When I finished the last repeat loop, I did one more loop as a cool down. 

Honestly, the weather was SO beautiful, I contemplated running even further, but I decided not to since my shins have been tender lately. The total workout was 3.2 miles. My legs, clad in shorts, were not cold at all, even after I had stopped and was standing around stretching. Such freedom, not to be restricted by tights! This does mean I should probably shave my legs more often, but as long as no one's looking too closely...

Moving on to today, I got to take Pink Lightning off of the indoor trainer! It seems like I just put her on, but more likely it's that I didn't use her that often over the winter. Oops. The weather forecast from today through Sunday indicates that it will be over 60 degrees each day (and the weather men are never wrong, of course) so I thought it was a safe bet that I'd get at least 2 or 3 outside rides in between now and then. After a slight panic about not being able to get the rear tire back on (boyfriend to the rescue!) I bundled her into the car and headed to the park.

If there's one thing spring weather is guaranteed to do, it's bring out the masses. The place was absolutely overrun with people walking, running, biking, skateboarding, roller blading, skulking around creepily...

I only had a certain amount of time to ride before I had to be at a staff meeting, so I got in 7 miles in 45 minutes. Don't do the math - it's slow. I always thought swimming was going to be my weakest area of triathloning, but it's becoming increasingly apparent that I am terrible at cycling. My quads get tired so easily, which I don't understand, since I've been running forever. I even had to walk the bike up one hill, embarrassingly enough. It's not even a hilly area! I'm hoping that if I get out for enough rides I'll be able to get through 30 miles effortlessly by the summer. 

Despite being discouraged by my lack of cycling skills, the ride in itself was awesome because I was out in the warm sun with plenty of people-watching opportunities. There were tons of cute little kids on tricycles and scooters. Lots of adorable dogs, including the tiniest Puggle puppy I have ever seen. And, one old man with a straggly gray ponytail and long beard, wearing a helmet, shoulder, knee, and elbow pads, riding a skateboard with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. ????

Oh, I should mention that spring weather marks the start of another big season for me: ice cream season! Something about the warm days makes me crave ice cream. But not the kind you can just get in a carton at the grocery store. No, I'm talking about the ice cream stands that open up around Memorial Day. I've been known to hit up the local place (that just happens to be less than a mile from our house) 3 or 4 times per week. By myself, when I can't drag darling boyfriend along. Pathetic? Maybe. Delicious? Absolutely. Tonight I had to have ice cream after basking in the sun, and since none of the stands are open yet, we settled on Coldstone (which also happens to be about a mile from the house...)

I hope everyone else is enjoying spring as much as I am!