I have been a bad blogger! Amazingly enough, life seems MORE busy than it did during IM training, when I always found time to blog. Lately I find time to Facebook but barely make a dent in Twitter or anything else. I don't have any awesome excuses, it's just been busy.
Training is going well. 3 weeks down and I've started to come back around to my routine again. I know a lot of people complain about winter training being boring but I love the potential for this time of year. Drills and technique/form stuff is not sexy but it's the work that will pay off the most in the long run. And this is the perfect time of year to continue to improve upon form and set those good habits! My race schedule for next year is mostly set...I need a few dates for events to firm up but I basically know what I'm doing. And the first thing on my list is...the Almaden Turkey Trot tomorrow morning. Fun!
I've been taking a couple of classes since September at the local community college. An exercise physiology class and a nutrition for sports class. Surprisingly I've found the exercise physiology class to be fairly easy - it just seems intuitive. I've worked pretty hard for the nutrition class - there is a LOT of reading and some real analysis required - I'm loving it! I'm in the midst of a 3-day dietary self-analysis, which has certainly been interesting. I've found through trial and error over the years what seems to work well for me in training and racing and it's not necessarily the conventional recommended diet in some ways (for example, I eat quite a lot of (healthy) fats). Perfectionist that I am, I am getting an A+ in both classes right now - hopefully that will continue through finals in a few weeks!
As seen in my last post with video, Stanley and I have been doing some agility trials. We're finally starting to sync up after being out of practice for so long! We've got three weekends in a row of trials in December as well as a fun match this weekend so I'm confident we're going to have some fun. He's really SOMUCHFUN to run these days. I've been doing a lot of work to build our relationship and connection and I think it's making the difference.
This past weekend I flew down to Phoenix to spectate at Ironman Arizona. (No, I did NOT sign up for next year! No IMs for me!) In addition to about 15 friends racing, my aunt was doing her first Ironman. I'm so glad I had the chance to hang out with family, visit with
Dani (who stayed with me the night before the race) and meet her wonderful husband and kids, and spectate with
Jen Harrison and her family. I worked the women's change tent for T1 so I was able to help most of my friends get changed and off onto their bikes - that is a *tough* volunteer job but so rewarding!!! Everyone had such a great race day - Dani got a huge PR and my aunt Jo had a smile on her face from start to finish! It's taken me about 3 days to recover from running all over town cheering but it was a blast!
Aunt Jo at the practice swim
Hanging with JPH
Best place on earth :)
Now I will try my best to update a bit more often from here on...there should be lots of interesting things to talk about during the holidays. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, everyone!
