Holidays Great... Find time to spend with family....

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Holidays etc etc etc! I am currently in Panorama with my hubby and kids as well as my sisters family. We had a wonderful and busy few days over Christmas and headed to the slopes on the 27th. Something happens to me when I come to Panorama! Here I am, in the mountains and fresh air, and should be motivated out the ying and yang to get some fresh air and ski, and run and play! Unfortunately that's not the way the world turns when I get to the top of the mountain!

I like to do nothing. Yup... you heard it... nothing, nada, sit on my butt and do... well... nothing! Christmas Day we went for a wonderful run at 8 in the morning. There were 5 of us with Pete, Toni, Dave, Ken and I. We did a nice easy 7k in the bitter cold, and it was a wonderful way to start the day! I was motivated and not willing to give a day of training away to the holiday season! (Fortunately my girls were at my sisters so it was easy for us to get out guilt free!) Boxing day, we were out for the cookie run with the Red Rock Running and Tri Club at Pete's house, then Ken and I did an outstanding ride in the afternoon. (Mine was outstanding with some really hard but wonderful intervals! Ken's was more of a spin, but I was still impressed he got on!) The 27th before I left for Pano I attended day 1 of the swim camp and did an epic 4750m swim! I've done it in the past for 3 or 4 days in a row, and while I was happy with the mileage, I was a bit disgruntled with how poorly my body handled the big swim. I was sore that night and quite thankful I wasn't able to attend the rest of the camp.

So... training, holidays, family, life... was all balanced until the 27th, the day we left for the mountains!

Since then, not much to talk about. Sunday was a complete rest day; I didn't even do core. Monday I did a 1:15 endurance ride plus core, and that felt good, and today I have speed work to do on the treadmill and a hard bike workout to do this afternoon. I only need to find the motivation to get off the couch to get both workouts accomplished! Of course, there is also skiing right outside my door, and I might try to fit a few runs in! We'll see.

So... what is the motto of this long and winded story. I often tell my athletes to let missed workouts go during the holiday season. We spend so much of our year putting our workouts on high priority in the balance of life, that friends and family can feel neglected. Training for triathlon, working, and spending time with your family can be challenging, and when we are putting in big volume training, building to our key races, it's often family time that falls down on the priority totem pole. I think it's important to recognize that. So, during the holidays, I support, encourage, rally my team to take time away from training when needed, "log" some precious hours with the people they love. It's good for the body and soul, and we have a whole year ahead of us to force those selfish moments when triathlon and running are almost all consuming.

So, have a glass of wine or a beer, and enjoy the season! We'll be back hard at it in January.

Happy Holiday!