Happy New Year to all of my friends, family and followers!! Without necessary healing time from a bike crash OR recovery time from an influenza hospitalization, I am already WAAAAY ahead of the game this year! I am so grateful to be healthy!
The holidays went by quickly, as it seems they always do. As soon as we returned from Arizona from the race, it was time to start preparing all of the goodies for Thanksgiving! We spent the holiday in Long Island with the in-laws and visiting Foof’s cousins, aunts and uncles whom we cherish dearly. No Thanksgiving holiday is complete without a good old-fashioned road race and against Coach Cliff’s better judgment; I chose to race my town’s Turkey Trot (perhaps the $100 cash prize for first place was the motivation). I was hoping to set a decent PR, and if you count taking :03 sec off your last 5K a decent PR, then I am awesome! It’s always a good day when you can earn $100 in 19 minutes! I chose to do this race which was only six days after I had raced Ironman and although a 5K is not very long in comparison to iron-distance racing, it is still a huge risk to take getting injured. I am happy to report that I managed to stay injury-free post Ironman Arizona.
Maintaining a low volume of base training, I headed to NYC to spend a long fun weekend with my three sisters and then as soon as I got home, I boarded a plan for a week in Disney World with Foof. Spending the week in sunny Florida made it hard to come back to the chilly, snowy Northeast, but I definitely enjoyed doing my Christmas baking and catching up with my new neighbors. We shared a peaceful, quiet and happy Christmas by ourselves in our new home. Just days after Christmas and not quite ready to give up sipping glasses of wine by the fire, it was back to work for me. The increase in intensity and volume of my workouts was obvious. We made one more quick train trip down to Philly to spend a blissful New Years Eve and New Years Day with my best friend and her family/friends. It was that trip that my body threw the white flag of surrender up and I wound up with a fever, what I can only assume was a migraine (since I have never experienced one before) and some nasty chest congestion. A good college friend came to my rescue, though, in allowing me to tag along with her to the herbalist/acupuncturist and I was back on my feet in less than four days, THANK YOU Vicki and Dr. Alice Shi!
Over the holidays, I also confirmed my training plans for winter/early spring, new sponsors and a tentative race schedule. I am VERY PLEASED to announce that I have confirmed partnership with Zevia, the natural soda, Breakthrough Nutrition, Cycles 54, Headsweats and Tristar Athletes. I am also very pleased to be the recipient of product support from Louis Garneau, TYR, BlueSeventy, Boulder Brands (Glutino, Earth Balance, etc) and FuelBelt. I speak from the heart when I say that these products and nutrition are what I have used for years and truly believe in.
I will be finishing out my early season training here in the Northeast the first week in February and then packing up and heading to Clermont, Florida where I will live with two other pros until the mid to end of April. I am feeling some early season fitness returning already and must say I have never been so excited to see what we will build for the 2014 season! The stars are aligned and it’s time to shine!!