Winter Hits Minnesota

A week ago, I posted about a casual ride around Lake Minnetonka.  I mentioned that 'The Snow Was Coming'.   Well, now I kinda wish that I had kept my big mouth shut.  Yesterday morning, I woke up to THIS...

and THIS...

Yep.  We got 10 inches of heavy wet Slurpie dumped on us over the weekend.  You know, the kind of snow that weighs about 80 pounds per shovel-full.  The good news is that the snow should be gone in no more than 5 months.  *Sigh*

Yeah, I know. When you live in Minnesota, eventually winter is going to slap you around, give you a wedgie and push you down the stairs.  I also know that around here, we were blessed with beautiful fall weather.  But that's cold comfort (pun intended).  Now, I'm trying to come to turns with how my workouts are going to change.

Time on the bike will be indoors.  Sure, I've got a pretty nice setup where I can plop my trainer in front of the boob tube and catch up on 'my stories', but nothing can replace an outdoor ride.  I don't run at night much, so since daylight savings hit last weekend, I've already been doing most of my runs on the dread-mill at the gym.  I can still do longer runs outside over the weekends if the paths are clear.  It's just harder to pick my lazy butt up off of the sofa when it's below freezing outside.

My biggest fear is that it'll start to become too easy to make excuses NOT to train.  The last thing I want to do is put on 10 or 15 extra pounds over the winter.  I want to hit spring running (again, pun intended) and focus on getting faster rather than losing weight.

Maybe what I really need to do is get some more races planned.  Sometimes, the best way to get motivated for training is to lay real money down for registration fees.

Stay warm kids.