Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted. The truth is I’ve been very busy and blogging about training, which is the purported point of this blog, has fallen by the wayside a little bit. I have certainly been training though in the hopes that this year, coming off a disappointing, injury laden 2014, will be awesome!

Step one was to stop taking things more seriously and have a bit more fun, which has been a bit of a theme lately. The truth is I almost always have fun training (except perhaps during long solo swims) but I wanted to take things up a notch:

 

10 mile run on a beautiful route, Sadie included

Bundling up with whatever I found in the car

Core work is more fun with friends…

This photo is from after the FIRST  of nine stages

Throughout the winter, I focused a lot on general strength and getting my bike back up to full strength. One really fun thing we did at Energy Lab was participate in the Tour de Sufferlandria. If you haven’t done Sufferfest videos before (or the tour) it’s a fantastic way to keep motivated during the off-season

These photos are after the LAST of nine stages 

 

Prior to that I focused a little bit on swimming for general aerobic fitness. I have aways wanted to do 100 x 100 so I was happy to get the chance on New Year’s Eve (plus an extra 50′ for time!) We held an official Atlanta Triathlon Club New Year’s Eve swim which was much more fun than it sounds like. We also had an amazing swim meet for Atlanta Tri Club, which was also a LOT more fun than it sounds like. Sadly for me it coincided with the 9th stage of the Tour so I think I came in last in my heat in all my events.

Check out all the hundreds everyone did!

This is from a photo shoot for Atlanta Multisports Magazine, an awesome new venture in Atlanta. If you  haven’t checked it out yet, you should!

 

Awesome shot in Energy Lab by Atlanta Multisports Magazine. John and I were part of a story called “Tri Couples”

 

In other training news, I got a new bike! I was sad to say goodbye to Dragon X, but I am beyond pumped to be riding a Felt ambassador Felt IA4 from Podium Multisport. This bike is extremely good looking and fast, and I have to stay on my game to even somewhat look like I belong on it!

 

This pic is like a breath of fresh air on a hot steamy day. Hoping to lean this baby up on many more ice machines this summer!

 

 

We also had an amazing time hosting the Pioneer crew to show off the latest and greatest features in their new crank based power meter. I’ll be using their new power meter and head unit this year.  I really believe their new meter and features, along with a fit tweak from Matt at Podium, are going to be a game changer for me… I’ll share more of a rewiew in a later post how it’s helped me gain more efficiency already. Happy to share the whole story with anyone.

 

I’m also excited to be an ambassador for First Bourn this year. First Born is a series of destination training villages catered entirely to athletes. There has been buzz for several months now, but just today they officially announced their first training village will be just outside of Asheville, North Carolina! Happy to share more info!