Love the Hurt: All work, some play

I'll admit last Nov/Dec I was super un-motivated, burnt out and started forcing myself to train when the time came. I ended up taking a step back, enjoyed the holidays and went into just full on unstructured/no pressure training mode. By the end of December and beginning of January I felt very refreshed and ready to tackle my third season. I think it goes back to listening to your body instead of telling it what to do (believe it or not - you're not in charge). I recently had an article published over at Tri Cal about this exact subject - go check it out HERE.

January has been a big month for me. I've had a ton of fun with Amy and the kids, killing it at work, nutrition dialed in and workouts have been flawless. My "new normal" in swimming has really changed. I used to think 10k/week was putting me on the right track on getting faster in the water. Then some of my pool lane mates are doing 10-20k a day! Not saying I have intentions of doing that amount of crazy swimming but it really opens up your mind to what the body is possible of doing. I've about doubled my yardage in the pool and have seen some big gains. Sometimes when you see the discipline in others it helps motivate you you step up your game. Love my swim mates!

As far as cycling and running - I just keep surprising myself each week. Last year I tried sooo hard and everything just seemed like a struggle to get through. This year it's coming easy without even trying to hard. I don't know if it's because I hit that magic third year and all the hard work is starting to finally pay off or if it's just me being very smart with my workouts. Probably both - I don't care I'm just going to keep my head down and keep doing what I'm doing and have fun doing it...