It's All Relative

I'm in the middle of a 'Recovery Week' this week. A much needed one that I am not even resisting, I might add. Last week the best I could hope for in describing any of my workouts was, "Well, it wasn't terrible." I guess that's what you get when your training volume and intensity goes up and teases your limits for several weeks in a row. All the pop and snap and spring just disappeared from my legs.

Anyway, since this is the first Ironman I've been coached through, I was pretty curious to see what a 'Recovery Week' would actually look like. It's funny, because when I first looked at it I thought, "This is nothing. I'm doing nothing next week." But then upon further inspection of the training plan, I counted about 12 hours of training. Then just cracked up at myself because I thought that was nothing. It's all relative I guess.

So I'm almost half way through this easy week now and am happy to report that my energy levels are returning to normal. My legs don't scream every time I climb the steps. And I'm friendly and smiling again. Not sure why I'm still eating like I'm training more though. Habit, I guess?

Anyway, you'd think I'd have plenty of time this week to blog blog blog, but I've been captivated by The Tour (of course) and a book my friend Nalani lent me. My free time (Moana's nap time) has been spent watching each stage (a couple times) and then reading. The book is a historical fiction novel set in the 1500's... I didn't used to like this kind of stuff, but it's a real page turner. It's called The Other Boleyn Girl, in case you're interested. Apparently it's supposed to be a movie soon. While I can't believe a movie could capture the intricacies of this novel, it still might be worth seeing if it's done well.

In Moana news... she's almost 9 months old now! And she's totally developing a cute little personality. I don't think we've ever been to the store without someone coming up and making a comment about what a happy baby she is. It's true too. The girl smiles all the time. She's a ton of fun to hang out with every day. Just when I think that it wouldn't be possible for me to love that girl any more, she smiles or laughs at something and my heart just melts again.

Last night we were sitting on the couch (watching another re-run of the Tour) and she was devouring her bottle when she heard the front door open. Usually I tell her "Daddy's home!" and then she has to actually see him before she gets all excited... but last night she heard him come in all on her own and when she did, she used her hands to push that bottle out of her face and then used all her might to turn herself around to see her dad. A huge smile erupted on her face when she saw him and then I put her down on the floor and she proceeded to race over to Scott. It was easily the fastest she has ever crawled. Talk about melting Scott's heart...

Tomorrow is Scott's birthday. He told me the other night that he can't imagine this next year being any better than this past year, though I think that watching Moana have all these breakthroughs will make it a darn good year.