First off, Anthony and I rang in the New Year while traveling Europe for 17 days. (I think that's a pretty good excuse to not blog for a while.) What a trip! I'm pretty sure I set a personal record of consuming the most desserts during this time period as well as cups of coffee and glasses of wine. What can I say? It was vacation, off season and EUROPE! We did our share of walking and even went for a run once, but I still managed to set a personal record of gaining five pounds in a 17 day period. Totally worth it though before taking on another full load in Grad School this spring!
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| Enjoying my Raspberry Tart in Lyon, France |
We returned from our trip on Sunday, January 13th around 7PM and I started training clients at 9AM the very next morning. Whew, what a day and week being thrown right in. Of course I managed and 40+ days later, I'm loving the relationships I've built with my clients and enjoy helping them get one step closer to their goals. However, I have set a personal record of waking up at 4AM and 5AM to train clients over the past few weeks. Surprisingly, it's easier to wake up for them then it was waking up for my own training back in 2009 for Ironman Canada.
Speaking of Ironman's, I've planned out most of my races for 2013 as I prepare for Ironman Tahoe in September. I'm looking forward to seeing old friends at events, making new ones and hopefully talking some others into doing some with me. Here's the current lineup with links to the races if you want to take a peek and register.
April 20th - Ride For Heroes
May 5th - Heels and Hills Half Marathon
June 1st - Playtri Festival Olympic Triathlon
June 30th - Buffalo Springs Half Ironman
July 27th - Goatneck Bike Rally
August 24th - Hotter 'N Hell Hundred
September 22nd - IRONMAN TAHOE!
To jump start my training, I signed up for a local 5k on February 16th to have a benchmark for my running. I dropped those five pounds I gained in Europe as soon as I got back from our trip but still wasn't completely confident that I would beat my last 5k PR. To my surprise, the cool temps and my Newton Running Shoes that make me feel like a cheetah, allowed for a new 5k PR of 24:43! I was stoked as I placed 1st in my age group that morning which is something I have never done before.
Another personal record is my current weight. After setting a goal to shed 10 lbs last year, I am now down 21 pounds from where I was before. I knew dropping some weight and adding some strength would make me a better triathlete and overall help my general health but I didn't really know what I was capable of.
So with that being said, I have all the confidence in the world this year to do well in my training as well as any races I participate in on my road to Ironman Tahoe. I'm not saying I am going to place at all my races or even do well in all of them but I'm so satisfied of the person and athlete I have become over the last year that this feeling of accomplishment is a personal record in itself. I never would have considered myself an athlete in the past as I rarely felt comfortable completely pushing my limits. I know that I am stronger mentally and physically than I have ever been before. I believe now that an athlete can be anyone with a body who can dedicate time to being better than they were the day before. Just getting out there for the first time makes you an athlete, so if you haven't made a commitment to yourself to achieve something great, I encourage you to DO IT NOW.
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