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Today's early morning bike ride through Dubuque. (Apologies for the shakiness in the video). This is the 47 Badger. Watch em bicycle in fast motion... It was a nice 12.5 mile ride through Dubuque. I think I'm going to have to get some highlighter color sweatshirts since it's a bit chilly early in the morning now.

I did my first triathlon this past weekend, and I think I caught the bug. I've been a runner for several years, and after going through almost 2 years of injuries I came to the conclusion that doing running all the time was just too hard on my body. Plus, I wanted to try something new. Now I've always enjoyed running, but I tended to enjoy the "after" part of running more when you drink a beer and eat a lot. But I feel like I enjoyed every second of the actual triathlon competition itself. It may have been the setting - which was in a scenic, rural area and the run part was on wooded trails. But I think I like having the variety of 3 different sports. And surprisingly, I enjoyed the swim the most! I seeded myself towards the back, but it ended up I was a good deal faster than a lot of women in my wave, and got stuck behind a large group of slower swimmers. The cycle would have been more enjoyable had it not been for a mechanical issue (somehow before the race my derailleur got banged up and shifting was not very smooth). I can't wait to do it again! This weekend's competition was a sprint, but my next one is an Oly, so I have a lot of training to do!

Any other enthusiastic casual cyclists here? I picked up bicycling again last year after a long hiatus. I'm currently training for a two day, 200 mile bike race this summer. I'm in the not-racing group (e.g. the vast majority of riders) and will be riding for fun and to prove to myself that I can do it. I usually commute to work by bike February through October when it's not raining or super cold. It's four miles each way and somewhat hilly. I'm also riding 20-30 miles each Saturday with a group of other people training for summer races and plan to lengthen my daily rides and add a longer one mid-week once the days are longer. I'm really slow; I'm always getting passed on the road. But, I don't care since two years ago I was so out of shape I could barely walk up some of these hills that I'm now riding on my bike every day. I'm proud of myself for the progress that I've made, and I'm really excited for the future because I know I have it in me to become so much better. The training rides have been both awesome and horrible. Awesome: I am totally capable of doing them without exerting myself. I'm going to move up to the next speed group this weekend. I also find that I really like riding in guided groups. I'm much more motivated to keep going up hills and at a reasonable speed. I'm also going to areas and seeing things I normally wouldn't because someone else is planning and leading the ride. It's great! These rides are free with my membership in the local bike club, so that's also a bonus. Horrible: discovering that I suffer from Raynaud's. I was in serious pain during the weekend rides even though the temperatures were in the 40s (4-8 ºC) and I was wearing two pairs of gloves on each hand. I think I need to buy some gloves with heated fingers.