Updated: Holiday Fun

I love the holidays, the arrival of snow, and the beginning of winter training. Lots of things have been going on the past month or two.

*My sisters and Baby P.!

After I made my big end of season triathlon campaign I was totally adrenaline-drained and trained out.  It was a long season and other than a few swim meets, I took some time off.  I had a lot of fun distractions and good memories.

*This photo of Uriah and I received 100 "likes" and I don't even have Facebook... :)

I took some time to enjoy the rest and spend time with my family.  My nephew Uriah is a at a really great age and is really fun to be around.  Baby P. arrived this summer and has been a treat.  My niece and nephew are the treasure of our family and we all love them more than anything in the whole world.  They are so cute, so fun, and at times, such little turkeys.  I love to be around them, I am a lucky uncle.

*Playing trains, "cho cho!"

*I went with my sister to see Santa. This is Uriah's "I'm only going to sit here to get my Christmas present" face.

*I attended Uriah's swim birthday party

*Spending quality time with Baby P. at the party.

*My dad made some epic nachos...yes they are worthy of being in this post

*I did a little cooking of my own.

I spent some time with my friends Kevin, Anne, JM, and Leanne who all came over to my house for a holiday weekend.  I spent a fair amount of time with Ayla as well.  I visited Evan and his parents, they took me in just like family (like they always do) and allowed me to celebrate a Swedish Festival of Lights dinner.  Evan's parents cooked some delicious things.  We all laughed, smiled, and enjoyed the company.  I also received a couple of great gifts from Evan and his family, which was very thoughtful.  They are a great family, very special to me.

*Only the finest Swedish delicacies 

*Why do we look guilty? :)

*One word, delicious.

I spent a few days at the most special place on earth, the Tri-Pad. When I was there I had a dream in which I was running, gliding, and flying across the ground effortlessly.  After injuries and layoffs I always have a dream of running when I'm ready to return. That's my subconscious way of saying, "Let's do it." A couple nights after the running dream I had a dream of looking at a huge clock.  Everything was dark in the dream except a huge ticking clock that towered over me as I stood looking up at it, the ticking was pounding in my head during the dream.  When I woke, I muttered to myself with a smile, "The clock is ticking."

*At the Tri-Pad, pondering the ticking clock dream

*This is the place for porch sitting and thinking

Like I said, the past couple of months have been a good reduction in training after a long season.  I had a lot of great times, and allowed my body to absorb all the past year of training, but I also picked up a few things that caused me anxiety and suppressed that fire to compete. I had a little bit of a transition period getting back to the focused-athlete lifestyle. I had to change and eliminate a few of the things that caused me the anxiety, and I am so glad that I did because the killer-instinct to train hard is back, and it's stronger than ever.  The last few weeks have been the best I have felt in months.  I am the lightest I have been in the past four winters (which is an extremely motivating thing), and my muscles feel great.

*Still thinking, only this time I look cooler with sweet shades, see what I did there?

I am rested, recovered, and ready.   My friends have been asking me over and over about another winter training montage.  Well guess what, it's coming!  Brodacious is back, bay bay.  :)

Happy Holidays!