Post Up 2009!

Christmas was fine and dandy - time at home with the core and a little extended family in the mountains where we were greeted by snow. Jack got in a little sledding and his sorta cousin and he built an igloo. Good times.

The time between Christmas and New Years has always been my favorite. Grades are always due right about the 1st, so this forces me to "close-up shop" and enjoy the holiday spirits that are running high which includes family and friends, new toys, football and the best weather on the west coast always (i'll take clear and cold versus hot and humid, especially to be outside and running around).


We had a little new year's eve party with some friends and good food and aside from a little bit of exercise, I've been just hanging-out, watching sports and reading books and blogs to sharpen some ideas surrounding my training and racing for 2009.

I've been reading a lot of 2008 "wraps" and among the many cool things the reader encounters, the best thing is all that positive energy. I love it. The general purpose of these transitional letters is to identify positive and negative themes/trends that help define the "season" with the idea that it's time then to construct a plan that improves upon whatever happened. You have to dig all of this self-awareness. Brilliant. Matt Fitzgerald wrote recently about TIME and how people, if they're motivated enough, can manage to get in the "work." It's all about motivation. But as I was reading it, I had to remind myself of how most of this "work" is so healthy. So many of us are trying to get good, to make ourselves better eaters and runners and/or even mothers and fathers, etc. But people reading Fitzgerald's post were sure to point-out that the "work" can get obsessive. Then it's not healthy. If that's your case, take it EZ! Most of the discourse I'm encountering is self-critical, honest and really optimistic.

2008 was very successful (optimism). Yet there is so much to improve upon it's ridiculous (honest). I've already been pretty self-critical about my strengths and weaknesses, but now it's time to organize my thoughts. I started racing in January 2008. It's January 2009. Perfect. In my next post, I'll start to get into the details of what I intend to do training and racing wise in 2009.

As for training, I'm currently de-fatiguing. IOW, I'm pretty chill.

PS
How bout those Chargers!