Something Old, Something New

Going into a new season of racing and a new year of life, there are always new things to try and changes to be made, as well as things that should remain untouched!  A few of these things that have been on my mind...

The ELF - Some people seem to change coaches as often as they change underpants - I'm not one of them.  Why mess with success and what works?  5 years of setting PRs and developing as an athlete and she still surprises me with new and inventive ways to push myself and suffer and improve.

Osmo - As a physiologist in training, I've read the research and the argument for gender-specific fueling/recovery made by Stacy Sims is beyond compelling.  As an athlete, the data resonates quite strongly with my own experiences training and racing.  So I'm quite excited to try Osmo nutrition products this year and see how it goes!

Home Sweet Home - With any luck, we should be in our very own house in Colorado in a couple more months.  I'll get to pack up my stuff and move - yet again - but I will finally be living with my husband and Puck again too!

Races - Given that I live in a new state 1000 miles away from my hometown, it's no surprise that every one of my races this year is brand-spanking-new to me.  New people to race against, new courses to tackle, lots of fresh territory to explore!  (The only thing I've come close to having familiarity with is SOMA, where I once raced the old Quarterman as one of my very first triathlons)

Time Management - It's old news that I'm chronically over scheduled.  With a full-time lab job plus classes and teaching AND triathlon training AND dogs, I'm getting plenty of practice putting my time management skills to work.  I find I'm doing more of my training in the evenings after I get home and walk the dogs (I was always a morning-only exerciser!) - in particular, it's been nice to swim around 8pm when the pool is empty and then drink a recovery smoothie and sleep like the dead!

Soaking It All In - I live in one of the most beautiful places around and I can't let that go unappreciated!  In the past I've been challenged in terms of taking the time to relax (possibly a chronic problem with Type A triathletes) but it's critical when I spend most of my time working so hard at school.  One of the ways I'm trying to balance all of my commitments is by leaving weekends open and not entering a lot of dog events (at least for now, when we barely find any time to train) - it gives me an opportunity to catch up and recharge and do spontaneous fun things.  Last weekend I visited Lyons with the dogs (twice) and went to Rocky Mountain National Park and Estes Park for the first time.  I try to plan at least one fun hike and outing for the dogs every weekend, after all of my training is done.

2014 is looking pretty special so far!

Snow Days

While Jeff and Puck were here visiting, we got a big dump of snow.  Which meant lots of fun and snow-hiking for the dogs, especially Puck who had never seen any before.  We also learned Stanley loves to catch snowballs and is quite good at it!

Bring on 2014!!!

I happily started 2014 in the pool, shortly after the gym opened on New Years Day.  For most of the 90 minutes, I was the only one in the pool and I couldn't keep the smile off my face when it started snowing!  Nothing beats swimming outdoors with Flatiron views - pinch me!

Training has otherwise been going well.  I swim, I bike, I run, I plank/pushup/etc and I know that all this less-than-sexy work lays the foundation for a solid season.  My first bike test in ~10 months was today and it was…not exactly stellar.  But I've been marathon training, not biking, and I know with actual application of force to pedals regularly, I will see improvements.

Lab/clinic work has been busy but life has felt quiet without classes to attend or teach.  All of that changes on Monday so I'm doing my best to pull my shit together in a hurry.

Jeff and Puck came to visit shortly after New Years and Puck got to see his very first snow though, I will try to post some photos and video of the whole thing.  He's having a blast here and it's nice to have the whole family together.  Mostly we've spent the week house hunting - talk about an exhausting process!  Our first day out driving around showed us just how bad the houses can be on beautiful properties (and at too high a price to knock down and rebuild).  Our second day visiting homes with the realtor resulted in at least one possible target, though we'd ideally still like to be closer to Boulder.  Think good thoughts as we head out for another round of homes tomorrow!

As it's already nearly mid-January, I have put the race schedule for the year on the sidebar.  Highlights? Duathlon Nationals in July and a return to the 1/2IM distance in October.  I had to find a race that really pulled at me in order to do that and SOMA is it - I was supposed to race SOMA a couple years ago when the Tempe Town Lake dam broke and the race was cancelled.  It's been calling my name ever since!

Happy new year!