Global Warming My Ass!

So, this past weekend was the offical kick-off for the Minneapolis running and biking events. Saturday was the annual Get In Gear 5k/10k and Sunday was the annual Minnesota Ironman Bike Ride - 100/63/30 miles. Both events draw in excess of 6,000 participants.

As you would expect, I signed up for both. I considered a half-marathon on saturday up north in my hometown of Nisswa, MN. However, I needed to be Geneva, IL for a business function on Sunday night, so a trip to northern MN wasn't in the logistics.

BTW - like the rest of the midwest, winter has been hanging on forever. Running has been OK (although, annoyingly cold), but any good quality riding has totally sucked. The ice just went off the Minneapolis lakes a week ago!!! And Sheila has a brand new Specialized Ruby Elite (carbon) road bike and she wants to ride it for more than 10 or 15 miles.

The 10k start and finish at Minnehaha Falls was only a 3 minute jog from our house. Easy. No problem... Um, check that. I woke up to snow on the ground and a 20+ mph wind. My 46:44 time was representative of my complete lack of enthusiasm.

When I left the house Sunday morning for the ride the temperature was 27, and it was all the way up to 34 when we started riding. Fortunately the wind was light-ish and the sun was out. Since this was the first long ride of the season (and there was 1800 ft of climbing) we rode easily averaging about 16 mph. Still, being the first long ride of the year, the quads where a little fatigued.

Then, as I was driving to Geneva, Sheila called and said it was snowing in Minneapolis!! Which gets me back to my point:

It is chillingly apparent that we have way overcorrected this global warming thing! Listen, we had a few warm years, Al Gore gets righteous, everyone goes "green", and before you know it - in a very short period of time - we have WAY overcorrected a minor eco-flucuation.

It's time to turn up our carbon footprint thermostats just bit - a little tweaking if you will. Let that Hummer H1 idle in the driveway overnight, use a few more flattering filament lightbulbs throughout the house, or skip the recycling every-other week. But whatever you do, be responsible and don't overreact again. This is just a correction to get us back to comfortable outdoor training.

Thanks! ;-)

See you out there (if it ever wamrs up)

Tagged

Ok, so I was tagged by Kickstand about a month ago... 7 things you didn't know about me. I've been meaning to get to it, but... Well, you see... Ummmm... Well, when you train for ironman with a group of people you pretty much have a lot of time to get to know one another. Anyway, here goes:

1 - I HATE SNAKES!

2 - My primary sport growing up was sailboat racing. Got my first boat when I was 5 and started racing that year. Did pretty well. I always wanted to race the Americas Cup or the Olympics, but my parents didn't want to raise a sailing bum. Oh, the 70's.

3 - My other sport growing up was skiing - alpine, nordic and water. Ski instructor and ski area manager through college.

4 - Speaking of college - never finished. 1 phys-ed course short. Somewhat ironic isn't it?

5 - In HS I played the trumpet at least 2 hours everyday.

6 - I'm probably not doing any major triathlons this year (maybe a few minor ones). Lots of cycling, maybe a marathon and maybe race my new cyclocross bike this Fall.

7 - I want to do another Ironman in 2010 when I'm 55. I'd even consider a non-NAS Ironman in 2009.

Bonus - Eventually I want to live with Sheila in a small house where the winters are long and the summers are intense.

See you out there.