This And That

I've had a few friends mention to me that I've been 'quiet' lately... I guess so... but not really on purpose or anything. Anyway, here's a quick update, in case you're interested. :)

~Training is coming along. I guess I'd say it's going well. Overall I'm doing substantially less training than I've done in the last 3-4 years. I struggle sometimes with the belief that I should be doing MORE, but at the same time, I'm nailing all my key swim and bike sessions so it's tough to complain about that. I'm reserving judgement on this less is more approach to the year until after I've given it more time and some more racing opportunities... I like to train a lot more than I have been training recently BUT I would also like to race well and I'm sure there's a balance in there somewhere that I did not get right last year... so I am open to trying something new!

~I haven't had any super hard or long runs or anything as I'm still building back from this calf/ankle thing. It's unfortunate, but I'm running out of time before Honu. I was certainly inspired by Jesse Thomas's performance at Wildflower last weekend (I'm a crazyassfan)- given that he didn't work up to running very long prior to his race- but managed to rip something out of himself anyway. Granted, I am not Jesse Thomas but nonetheless I'm grasping onto that performance to help myself believe I can do something similar (though at my own level) even though my long run going into Honu will be quite a bit shorter than I'd prefer. I'm hoping this will be a scenario where my 20 years of endurance training will be something I can tap into!

~Speaking of racing more, I'm seeing a bunch of new local races popping up this year and it is very exciting because a few of them look really cool and fun. I looked at my Training Peaks calendar for the summer after I got done inputting them all and was like WOW, that's a lot of little yellow boxes. Granted, most of them are just shorter ocean swim races or whatever, but still. Lot's of yellow in there! None of those look/feel stressful to me... just fun local racing with friends... and that pulls at me in a very appealing way right now.

~A good thing about training less is that it gives me more time to coach! Somehow I've ended up with more athletes than ever right now... Mostly I guess b/c I have a hard time saying no to athletes who I've worked with in the past who want to come back... and then there's the local ones who contact me and want help with swimming or whatever... I find myself genuinely wanting to help- and I have confidence that I can- so I say YES LET'S DO IT. And then every once in a while I think to myself shit can I really do it?? But so far the answer has been yes- overall I'd say the team is doing awesome right now and I'm not feeling like I need to rip my hair out keeping up with it all. There are a few races coming up in the coming weeks that I am very excited about watching (online, unfortunately)... When athletes work really hard and do everything I ask of them- and they're nailing everything- I feel this giant sense of responsibility for their performance... Maybe more so than is reasonable but that's part of our success I think. I believe a big reason that my athletes do so well is that they know I am watching all the time and that I genuinely do care, so there's a shared sense of responsibility to it all.

~On the home front, things are humming along as well. Moana lost her first tooth! The Toothfairy left a dollar under her pillow and she was thrilled. Next tooth is loose now so we are on our way down that road- she is growing up! Funny story I posted a bit about on Facebook the other day... she challenged Scott to stop drinking beer because it is not good for him. In his defense, he drinks usually one beer each night so his habit is not truly unhealthy, but she made a good point. He countered and said he would give up beer if she gave up candy. If you have a kid maybe you understand what a giant sacrifice that would be, but she agreed! They had each already had their beer/candy that night so the challenge was to begin the following day. I seriously wondered who would crack first and honestly didn't know, but turns out our little 5yo has resolution of steel, while my husband has habits that are harder to break. So that challenge was over after ~24 hours. Moana, to her credit, said that even though daddy gave up, she is going to go three full days without candy. I think she'll do it too!

~The chickens are growing up too. Ellie has firmly established herself at the head of the pecking order. I think Big Red is next and Snow is last (of the 3), though Snow is not content with her positioning. It's interesting for me to watch and Snow 'challenges' the other two quite often mostly via jumping at them and 'chest bumping' when they are out and about in the yard. The red chickens pretty much just ignore her but she does not give up. It's pretty cute, I think. Peepers is still too young to run around freely without me being back there, mostly because she is small enough to still bring out a primal look in Ozzie's eyes when he sees her. The bigger chickens chase the cats right out of the yard these days, but it's going to be a few more weeks before Peepers has that ability. I've learned a lot about how chickens function socially and they are not just going to accept Peepers into their peer group... I think she is going to have to earn her way in once she's bigger. I tried putting her in their coop one evening and she was scared to death- rightfully so. The other 3 cornered her and started pecking (bullies!!) so I opened the coop door and Peepers flew right up onto my shoulder like Save me mom!! So she's got her own separate penned in sleeping quarters outside for now.

~Lastly, a couple fun songs I found recently that have been added to my ipod playlist... Maybe you'll like them too?
On Top of the World- Imagine Dragons
Best Day of My Life- American Authors
Come With Me Now- Kongos
Girls Chase Boys- Ingrid Michaelson
Raging Fire- Phillip Phillips
Pompeii- Bastille