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| My Family |
First off, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. My family and I have thoroughly enjoyed the festivities over the past week, and I have put on the few extra pounds my coach had recommended that I do. I made many yummy desserts.
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| All the nieces and nephews. |
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| My brother Randy, me, sister Terri, and brother Johnny... and dessert. |
For those of you who have been following my blog, I apologize for the extended absence. It has been a struggle for me fitting in all the things I need to do with work and family now that my training has increased significantly. Sometimes something has to take a back seat until schedules can be organized, tested, and tried, to find the right fit. I think I may have found that now.
This year has been an interesting, challenging, and great one for both sport and family. It's the struggles that either break us or make us so I'm using last year as a jumping off point to make 2015 even better than 2014.
In 2014 my goal was to win a medal at FINA Master's World Championships. It began as a struggle to get to the pool 3-4 times per week, even with a set practice time. It was a sacrifice for me and my family. A new balance in time management, proper nutrition, and rest allowed me to maintain home, work, and personal health commitments. I learnt how to manage my time to fit in those 4 practice per week, get my 3 kids to their activities and still do well in my career. The goal of medalling was realized at World's and I brought home 3 silver and 2 bronze.
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| Silver medal in 400 IM 2014 Fina Master's World Championships |
After completing the Barrelman Triathlon, my second triathlon and first 70.3 distance, at the end of September 2014, I have become excited to see what I can do in Triathlon competition. Unexpectedly qualifying for ITU World Long Course Championships had a lot to do with that. This has caused me to re-evaluate my time and scheduling. I ask myself constantly, what am I able to truly handle while still maintaining my life commitments and overall health, as well as compete to as close to my best ability as possible. Hence why I've been MIA for the last 2 months.
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| Barrelman Finish, Fastest Female Swim, 4th woman overall, 2nd in age group. |
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| Some of my trihart training partners and coach Lee. |
I've found an amazing Triathlon Coach, Lee Hart, who was my swim coach last year, he helped me to win those 3 silver and 2 bronze at World's. He has created a workout program that fits in with adults that work and/or have kids. With his help and additional support from my amazing training partners and family, I've been able to get in the workouts and see significant improvements in my run and cycling. What about swimming you ask?
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| Me 100m Freestyle, World's. Bronze. |
The 2015 race schedule has been set yet is flexible, based on my results, to which events will follow throughout the season. First up the Burlington Splash swim meet, then the Grimsby Half Marathon, next is the Around the Bay 30km, then Ironman 70.3 in Raleigh, NC. My results at Raleigh, NC will shape the remainder of my season. I am hoping to win one of the coveted spots to Ironman 70.3 World Championships. If I can stay focused, rested, and fed properly I should be able to keep up the current training schedule and still manage work and family commitments.
I'm looking forward to seeing my old friends at the pool and making new ones at the running and triathlon events. I will share my struggles and success in hopes that it will help others to stay motivated to go after their goals, regardless of what they are.
Learn from the old and take that information forward into 2015. Use it to get yourself closer to your goals.
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| Toronto Island Lake swim winner 2013, 2014, and fastest female swimmer Barrelman Triathlon, 2014. |
