Yahoo! The Off Season and Other Stuff

It's really time for me to blog again!

Since the Ragnar Relay I've loved not training. What I loved most about it was the mental break. Having one less thing on my plate for awhile was good because training had become something I "had to do." The passion for it had waned.

During the break I made some decisions about 2010.

I'm going Short Course! All sprints and Olympic distance races!

The reasoning is two fold:

1) Training for Short Course will take significantly less time, which is essential for me in 2010. While I've learned tons about managing feelings of overwhelm that come from launching a new business, trying to be the best wife I can be, and living the rest of my life, honestly the thought of training for a Half Ironman next year made me go UGH and produced a feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach. I've learned to listen to those feelings. After all it was a flash of feeling, in the center of my gut, like a voice telling me what to do, in November, 2006 that spurred me to commit to Silverman. Three years later, HERE I AM! A changed person in every sense of the word. I listen to those gut feelings.

2) I seriously want to get faster. I TRULY DO. Coaching with Liz will get me there. I will continue to have to step outside my comfort zone. I didn't push as hard as I wanted to in training in 2009 and that sort of bugged me. It also showed in my Utah Half Iron race results and in a lot of my mental struggle during that race. Looking back I just see it as an opportunity to prove to myself how serious I am to raise my athleticism to the next level. I need to get comfortable being uncomfortable!!!

I'll post my race schedule soon in the sidebar. I feel the need for a new blog template soon too, and new pictures . . . . . :-)

For now, getting back into training has been good. But also rough. My run absolutely SUCKS. Liz told me yesterday that the run takes 4-6 weeks to come back so this makes sense. I had a GREAT swim workout the other day -- it surprised me how good I felt in the pool after six weeks away. And I've been riding the trainer doing high cadence drills, one legged drills, and other stuff. And of course strength work. That is the toughest for me to fit in because I treat it as an afterthought.

WRONG WAY TO LOOK AT IT! I just told Mike and Ann the other night at dinner (Mike came down here to race the Silverman Half -- he had a very strong race!) that I'm feeling too "soft" in the body lately. Ugh. It's true though. I sometimes miss the days where I lifted three times a week (of course during that phase of my life I did no cardio at all. I brazenly believed I didn't need to -- rofl).

SO . . . . DO THE STRENGTH WORKOUTS STEF. Duh. Nuff said.

Consistency is KEY for me this year. Part of not pushing myself enough in 2009 included letting myself rest too much. Truth be told I skipped too many workouts. Because pushing myself really HARD out there in the swim, the bike and the run scares me. It is SO uncomfortable. Training for Silverman, every workout was a risk. Every workout, especially toward the end, pushed me into someplace I had never been. I wanted Silverman so badly that I had to shove aside the fear and the discomfort and just GO.

After Silverman I've had to find new sources of motivation within me. And that's okay. That means I continue to change and grow.

So I plan to be back here more often blogging about my training and new goals. Welcome back ME!

OH and it was so much fun following my awesome blogger buds who did the Beach 2 Battleship!!!! I had signed up for that race and, while pulling out was the best decision for me, it was amazing watching them give their all out there: Calyx, Donna Shirley , and Kevin especially!!! I've been following these guys for at least two years now and always wait with bated breath for them to post. Great blogger friends to have!!!!!ENJOY YOUR OFF SEASON FOLKS. You earned it!

On Balance

WELL!

Last week, with the exception of the awesome IronGirl spectating/sherpa experience, was less than stellar for me.

To start, from Wednesday on, I completely fell off the training/clean eating wagon. YUCK! Loss of appetite, limbs that felt heavy, motivation GONE added up to a half a week of missed training. Even the euphoria of IronGirl could not motivate me to train over the weekend. Again, YUCK!

And yet, this is OK with me. Months of attention to details like my business, staying balanced, staying happy, training consistently, has left me with very little desire to get angry over these glitches and almost no desire to beat myself up like I used to.

This morning I started a new week of training which is a clean slate. Sure I felt a little flat, a little like I was recovering from a mild illness, but honestly I didn't care. The point is I was out there, doing my run, in the increasing southern Nevada spring temps. Honestly? I was thinking how this freaking HOT weather we have here will really help me be prepared for the Utah Half!

So yeah I don't like training in the heat. At all. But it sure is nice when a kick ASS thought comes before a more whiny negative thought.

Meanwhile I'm moving forward in my business and our kitchen is being transformed. Seriously. It seems like every time I leave my home office to go out there something has changed. Glenn is a freaking GENIUS.

So, I've concluded that I can totally do it all. As long as "it all" is comprised of moving forward with:

1) things I really truly want and am passionate about (my marriage, triathlon, my business, and assorted "others"),

2) things that I am doing for reasons that feel absolutely 100% right to me and

3) the absolute understanding that I am a continual work in progress and, with 1 and 2 firmly in place, I accept where I am, all the time, in every given moment.