Appreciation

If you read this blog regularly, you know I don't talk a whole lot about my life outside of triathlon, my personal life. To be honest, at times over the past few months I wasn't sure if I had one anymore and that didn't bother me one bit. I have been really happy with the path I've chosen. But every so often, I have a moment to reflect and appreciate the things I have in my life.

I've been in Wisconsin for 5 days now for what started out as a fun holiday weekend leading into a week of working remotely so I can volunteer at Ironman and sign up for 2009. I've tried to keep up some level of training while here, but it's definitely suffered a bit. My diet has suffered, too. I shared my Taste of Madison toll and while I've cleaned it up a bit, there are still a lot of things I'm allowing because even though I'm not on vacation, I'm away from home so my brain thinks I'm on vacation. I had two croissants and a cookie yesterday from the cafe at L'Etoile. Yes, two croissants. I skipped lunch, but still, one should have been enough (let's not talk about the cookie). Today was much healthier and I was feeling back on track, but then there were the fresh-baked cookies from the farmer's market. How could I resist? And then there's the beer...

I can sit here and beat myself up for falling off the wagon, or I can just enjoy myself and feel content with the fact that everything else I'm eating has been healthy and I've managed to stay pretty active. I'll go with the latter because I'm so thankful I get to be here. I don't get to spend tons of time with my family so this is a real treat. I had a busy work day that started early and ended late so I took a long lunch break and went for a quick swim with a woman I met through Beginner Triathlete. She was incredibly nice to offer to let me tag along so I happily joined. I was hoping to get in some elliptical miles, but by the time I finished work, I just wanted to enjoy dinner with my family and relax, so I did. I spent over an hour on the terrace having a drink with my mom and dad, enjoying a nice evening and just chatting. How often do I get to do that?

I have 5 more days to enjoy here before heading back to New York and I'm sure I'll make the most of it. I'll continue to find a balance between training and life and just do my best. After I sign up for Ironman on Monday, that balance will become even harder to maintain so I need to appreciate how simple my schedule and my life are at this moment.

This photo has nothing whatsoever to do with today's post, except that it captures some of the spirit of my time here. It also sums up my diet very nicely!







Swimming
Distance - 856 yards
Time - 30:00