Training update

I brought this home yesterday (the Specialized one in case in doubt) and I am pretty excited about it. It is an entry level road bike, basically the cheapest one they had on store but it will do the job.
I went riding with a bike group from work Sat and they told me that one store near St Louis was having a sale that day. So I went, told the guy selling bikes that I was looking for something entry level, I test rode couple bikes and they chose the cheapest one. I cannot justify anything expensive unless I kick some cycling butts first. But on a second though, maybe I cannot kick any butts on this bike...Then it will be a vicious cycle I suppose. But I do not care, I just wanted a road bike to have some fun around.
(My sister called me right after I bought the bike while I was in Target looking at drying racks and after I started complaining to her that $22 for a piece of plastic is little too much she said I was an idiot since I just spent a thousand bucks on a bike but am too thrifty to pay twenty two bucks for a drying rack. My dear, I cannot spend $22 BECAUSE I just spent a thousand on a bike. But I got that drying rack as well because I am not using a drying machine. Drying machines are very bad!)

I took my new ride for a ride today and it was awesome (although it was cold, two pairs of pants, socks, gloves, couple layers of jackets)!!!! I explored some local farm roads and they are ok with an occasional rough patch but nothing too bad and no cars. The problem is dogs. I was chased twice. I do not like dogs one bit. I am scared of dogs.
The ride was great and I am looking forward to getting on a bike often now. My TT bike has a compact cassette and this is standard so I cannot swap the Powertap wheel easily:( Not sure how I am going to go about it. I am thinking about getting a second powertap wheel, the cheapest version will cost me only $500 (well, only...) but that's probably little too snobbish, isn't it?
I wish those powermeter pedals were cheaper. Even Garmin does not want to hire me a test rider (I asked and they said no) so I think that I need to find a man to share my living expenses with and then I will buy those pedals. (Which might take forever because I have very particular standards, you know, German engineer and a holder of US Green card with a marathon PR under 2:36 that is proficient in physical therapy and likes to spend his free time as a bike mechanic.  Those types are very rare and hard to come around.)

Running has been pretty much non-existat in the last 5 days...It is part of my off-season week. But I have found a hill where I can do hill repeats.

Swimming is great. I tried 10x100 @ 1:40 and was able to do it no problem. 100s were in 1:35ish without too much trouble although I had no faster gear and it felt very steady. And then I also did 4x 100 @ 1:50, 200@ 3:40, where 100s were a notch under 1:30 and 200 were easish in 3:10. So not as bad as I feared and I am probably not too off from where I was in fall last year. Of course it means that this year was almost a complete loss but I am saying almost because I know that it was not and there was some improvement. Unfortunately improvement was not as big as it could have been but what can I do, right? I am not going to dwell on it and move on. I still have years to improve.

I spoke with my grandmother and my parents today they both asked me about my eating habits because they are worried that I live on cake. I assured them that although I in fact live on cookies, donuts, tortilla chips, Starbursts, peanut butter M&Ms and milk duds (I cannot believe that I have not eaten a single muffin since I got here!!! Need to change that tomorrow.) it is only temporary. I need to stuff myself with all the food that I did not eat in Germany and once I tried everything I missed (which reminds me. Cheesecake! I have not had a cheesecake yet! Will buy some tomorrow.) then I will go to normal eating. I have been here for 10 days now and I have not tried whether the stove works. Actually I have not unpacked the cooking pots I bought yet.