Positivity, Sarah-style

When I woke up this morning, I was scowling, mad-at-the-world cranky. I'm tired, two weeks into a training block, and when I woke up, it was 12 degrees out (-11C). Furthermore, I would have to somehow muster the energy to get a bike and run workout in before 12, when I have swim practice. At this juncture, I had three options: ride inside on the Computrainer, feeling sorry for myself the entire time, ride outside and feel sorry for myself, or turn my foul mood around and make the best of my day. Since nobody likes a whiner (decidedly un-BAMFy), I resolved to make the most of the situation. Starting with breakfast, I mentally catalogued reasons to get into a more upbeat mood (I hear it already: "Oh Saucy, you are so American!").

Here are my reasons for being positive today:
-My spiced pumpkin pancakes with real maple syrup (so expensive out in CO that I might as well put gold flakes on my breakfast). I had to pull out the big guns, pre-ride.
-Raven's Nest coffee, times two
-My SRM's temperature function, proving that I'm not as soft as I previously feared (negative degrees Celcius at the start!)
-Coach JT's understanding of my love-hate relationship with numbers, specifying that I just do my hill repeats and not look at my watts
-Joe's box of cycling clothes that he has held onto for the past 15 years, providing me with ear warmers and lined vest
-My complete lack of wardrobe shame. Star-spangled Groff with pink leg warmers? Not a good look.
- Living within 30 seconds of Monument Valley trail
-Planning tomorrow's dinner (and, yes, I pulled out cookbooks in transition)
-No wolf-like dogs spotted (I'm in the middle of Sharp Teeth). I did see a black standard poodle, however, which made me think of Grovesy's obsession- always a reason to smile.
- Getting swim, bike and run workouts in before 1pm.
-The Flobots' "Handlebars"- my new, I-can-conquer-the-world song
-The realization that, while I willingly head out on my bike in freezing temperatures, I am a pretty lucky person to be able to do this for a living.

Happy training,
Sarah

Happy Valentine's Day

Many people dismiss Valentine's Day as being a creation of the card companies. If you are a kid (or quite a few adults), however, it is another opportunity to pump yourself full of sugar and run around like a tasmanian devil. And if you are me, you take advantage of the situation to mooch candy and a Cinderella pencil off the kids and to wind them up. They aren't coming home with me, after all...

A worthy mess

Even though I was disheartened that I couldn't find doilies in the art room this afternoon, the kids and I made some Valentine's Day cards. I didn't get the chance to make one myself, as I was too busy cutting out hearts for them and cleaning up endless paper scraps and glitter (glitter, while fun and sparkly, is a disaster waiting to happen). The most amusing part was how many boys were in the room, making big hearts for their "girlfriends". Since a few claim to be juggling more than one girlfriend, their hands were full with card-making!

Back to blog-land

The best part about jetting off to training camps is that you are able to completely absorb yourself in training to the exclusion of everything else. For three weeks in Maui, I was able to focus solely on swimming, biking and running (and eating and sleeping- the frequently unrecognized fourth and fifth sports that make up the triathlon) and actually checked my email daily. This singular focus that makes a training camp so wonderful, however, is also what makes a return from camp so difficult.

When I came back to Colorado Springs last week, I was inundated with tasks that I had pushed aside for at least three weeks (I'm an excellent procrastinator), the most engrossing entailing a move from the Olympic Training Center dorms to a house off-campus. Combine moving my stuff from Boulder, sorting through numerous boxes of clutter and setting up a house with utilities etc. with my training and re-acclimation to altitude and it should be pretty apparent why it has taken me a couple of weeks to return to the blogosphere. That being said, Lauren Groves/ Gunnison/ Gigi, knowing how much I normally avoid the computer, correctly predicted that the frequency of my blogging would drop off substantially upon leaving Maui, where everyone spent countless hours in the tubes (I still don't understand the appeal).

Anyway, I'm back in Colorado, busting out my cold weather clothes for training, and getting back into a regular routine, including hanging out with my kids at the Boys and Girls Club. I am happy to report that my skills at Connect Four have not diminished in my time away from the club. There is quite a few new members to the club, so I am presented with the daunting task of both remembering names and learning new ones- never a strength of mine.

As a side note, I've noticed that I have an overwhelming number of blankets and pillows. Our kitchen is also incredibly stocked with great cooking tools and utensils, especially considering the fact that we have no couch, kitchen table or chairs. Based on my possessions, sleeping and eating are extraordinarily high priority tasks for me (like I said before- they are the fourth and fifth sports in triathlon). Okay, back to packing. There will be more updates to come! Someday...

Sarah