Oopsies!

I said I was going to try harder to update more frequently and I've decidedly failed at that so far.

So what's been going on with me...

The first thing I have to mention is my amazing new sponsor for next season. Jake Campbell of C&C Insurance is providing me with a ton of support for my 2012 travel plans and I can't thank him and C&C enough. I feel awful for not recognizing their support sooner, but I have been crazy busy! I also have to mention Jake just finished his first Ironman at IM Florida in 11:05!! It was amazing to see his dedication and improvements throughout the year.

Besides that news, I've officially given up on living the dream and I'm now working full time at the new Mountain Equipment Co-op coming to London. The hours have been crazy with store set-up, but it's a very cool place to work and my boss is talented local cyclist Marten Mann. It has been a huge challenge to fit training in around 50+ hour work weeks lately but it will all be worth it when the store opens up next week! I'm excited to be a part of such a forward thinking company, and show off "my" bike department :)

As for training, well nothing is particularly interesting this time of year. Back to the basics for a while before ramping training back up for the new year. The interesting part has been trying to fit in a modest 14-16 hours of training in with my busy work schedule. I guess it's a little taste of what most age group athletes deal with on a daily basis...it's not the first time I've been training while working full time, and some of those around me have basically said "welcome to the real world"...but it is the first time I've been working so much while trying to train at an elite level. It's really not easy, and the biggest part is trying not to get stressed out over how busy things are or wishing I had more time to train. All of my workouts are done at 6-7:30am, 7-10pm, or sacrificing my lunch break if I have 3 workouts in a day. It has forced me to really keep my recovery and nutrition and dedication in check. So not necessarily a bad thing.

Gabbi Whitlock and the Balance Point Training group have also been a big part of maintaining my consistency, and swimming with the group is already bringing me some great improvements in the water. It's a great group and Gabbi is a fantastic and underrated swim coach. It feels so good to get faster and more efficient in the pool...especially with a slightly lighter focus on my swim training with my racing plans next year.

My bike and run training is pretty low key right now, with it being November and given my work schedule. I wish I could say I was banking 5 rides a week right now but it's just not feasible or realistic this time of year if I want to stay consistent all winter. I'm looking forward to finding the time to fit more training in soon and I'm really motivated to get fit on the bike for the early season and keep building all the way through the summer. I'm really looking forward to giving long course racing a go next year and I know that my bike training will be key.

So that's all for now, hopefully soon I can talk more about training and less about how busy I am. But that's life!