"Winter Storm" Warning

Today is the start of a "winter storm" warning for the region. Snow warnings above 5000ft elevation (we are around 2700 ft). Not quite the winter storm warnings you would associate with in Ontario. We instead got lots of wind (25-30 mph) and a bit of intermitent showers. Temperatures all day were around 50 F but felt colder with the wind.

3.5 hr ride with 3X (20' steady state, 10' ez)
Full cold weather gear today, hat, jacket, vest, leg warmers, and toe covers!! We started out as a group for the first hour of warm-up, before breaking into groups for the steady state efforts. I ended up riding behind the first group of 5 or 6, as I didn't want to exert myself too much on my first long ride of the year. Nick Hastie and I ended up riding and working together in the wind (efforts into the wind were around 20km/hr) which definately helped!! I ended up flatting with 6' left in the 2nd interval, so I had to change the flat after that interval....that was one of about 6-7 flats for the day. There are numerous cacti thorns, other debris, as well as small pot holes that contributed to the flats. Nick and I missed a turn on the ride, so we ended up riding a little bit extra, before the support van came to tell us to turn around the pick up our road. We had to take a mountain pass (West Gates Pass) to get back to the Tucson side of the mountain range, it was cool to ride up a nice twisty pass...good prep for when we tackle Mount Lemmon in the coming days. Nick, Gen and I ended up getting picked up at the 3hr 30' mark, as we were still approx 45' out and we were scheduled for 3:30 of riding.
All in all we got in 93km in 3:18 of actual riding time.

A few of us headed over to Bally's Total Fitness later in the afternoon to do a weight session. All our sessions at Bally's are covered, we just show up and they let us in to use the entire facility!! We came back to the condo's had a group meeting to go over information and training schedule for the next couple of days, then 9 of us (Simon, Sam, Kyle, Adam, Lauren, Craig, Gen, Kirsten, and myself) headed out for some authentic mexican food in town. During dinner, Simon was talking about my stellar kicking speed for the work-out the other day, nd Sam proposed a 50m kick challenge tomorrow, her and I. She tells me she is a slow kicker, so we'll see who is slower tomorrow hopefully.

Tomorrow scheduled activities include:
7:30 long run (60-90') I'll most likely get in 45-60' depending on how my leg feels.
11:00 2hr base ride w. 10X (2min high cadence, 1' ez)
4:00 3km aerobic swim

Monday is a bit of a recovery day, before 3 solid days in the middle of the week. Monday is a morning swim, optional yoga, and then 30-45' base run or water run.