2011...and so it begins...

2011...WOW!  This year is going to be full excitement/craziness for us!   We have Kona in October (just booked our house from Sept 28-Oct 12!!!) which I cannot even imagine how cool of an experience this will be for us (I'm going to get to share this experience with many of my family members--more on that later).  Along the way, my "resolution" is to Focus and Balance my life, whether it's here at home, out training, at work...  Last year, especially with my shoulder surgery, we were pressed to the limits, and I think Jenny, Sophia, and I came out of it better than I could have imagined (not to say the training didn't have its strains on us...).  Life on the home front is great, work is always moving forward, and training, well, is training!   I have plenty of races coming, but we are going to make sure Jenny and I get plenty of date nights, maybe even a camping trip to Pinetop..
Yesterday, in my mind, marked the beginning of the 2011 season.  Kind of ridiculous for this time of year, but it just had to be done this way: a 45 minute morning run at 4:30am, a 3200 yard swim at 5, and a 2 hour trainer session (base ride) from 8:30pm to 10:30pm.  Oddly enough, when my head finally hit the pillow at 11:15pm, I felt energized to be back at it!  Yeah, I didn't stop working out, but between the cold weather here and a calf strain, I have been training for about 10 hours a week since IM AZ...not a lot, but not a little either.  I feel that it was just the right amount to feel like it was "off-season" and not taxing on me mentally or physically....so I feel ready to go again ;)
In 8 days is PF Changs Marathon...I am very curious as to how I will do with the limited training, and with issues on every long run I have done recently (GI, calf strain....), I hope to show up to the starting line healthy, and the race will be what my body gives me.  It's more or less a training run for me in prep for Ragnar Ultra on Feb 24-25.  Today is a swim and a run, then off to Payson to play in the snow with the family, along with 2 runs tomorrow up there...a nice change of scenery!
I'm going to start to blog more frequently from here on out, so feel free to "follow" this in the side bar link (it's always nice to see who reads this...I hear from a lot of people about it, but otherwise I don't know if anyone is reading my "diary!"
Next up:  I've been wanting to write about what going to Kona means for me...that will be next, and is where the reference above about my family going will be mentioned ;)

Anyways, Happy 2011...here we go!  ...and a cool clip to end...more of these to come on future posts!