Every Day I'm Shuffling

We've had beautiful weather in the Chicagoland area lately. Last night, Tim and I went for a run at a local mall. The economy in our areas is pretty depressed, which means empty, well-lit parking lots. Alas, my Garmin battery died halfway through, so I had no data for this run. Turns out you need to charge the thing more than once every two and a half weeks ...

To my surprise, the thermometer kept climbing today. It was solidly in the 50s, and some murmurs at work said it was closer to 60! In January! It wasn't so long ago that experts were saying we'd have the worst winter on record. There's still time, for sure, but running outside in January is pretty rocking. This time, I went off to a different parking lot, which was equally well-lit and empty. I knocked out just a little more than a 5K distance with an overall pace of 8:49. I feel accomplished.

Today has been a very fitness-focused day for me. I've been thinking about competing in a triathlon for a while and started taking steps towards this goal today. I ordered my first swim cap, goggles and athletic suits today. I'm very nervous about this because I have no clue if any of this stuff will fit. I've never bought a swimsuit that comes in sizes with numbers and I've certainly never worn a swim cap. However, I found a $12 swimsuit and a $25 swimsuit, so I'll make it work for those prices.

I'm also on a quest for a triathlon-worthy bike. I'm not trying to compete with the elites, but I'm guessing my $60 K-Mart Huffy isn't going to cut it. I found a great Trek bike on craigslist that's my size (50 cm) and already has aerobars, climbing gears and triathlon tires. On the plus side, I think this bike would be the only thing I for several seasons of triathlon training and already has all the bells and whistles (mostly) that I'd like. On the downside, it's more than I wanted to pay, coming in at almost $800 for a 2002 bike. Choices, choices ....

Either way, I'm going to need to test it out another day. Why? Because I got myself onto the bike and promptly fell right over. I. Was. Mortified.

Luckily, the guy was very understanding and didn't laugh at me (at least while I was around) nor tell me I ruined his bike, which I didn't, but I was scared. He said he'll change the seat up before we meet again next week and then I can try again. He's a bit taller than me, so the seat was too high up. At least, that's the story I'm sticking with to explain my cycling fail.