Holiday Stuffing and End of the Year thoughts.

If you took a thousand random pictures of me in December, they would look like the picture above. I have been stuffing my face at every opportunity. To make matters worse, I have been resting my body for most of the month with a full 10 days with no activity.

As we all know, the balance of calories in and out have some unwanted side affects on the body. I steered away from scale most of the month. I checked it in the middle of December and today. To my surprise, the damage was not as bad as I had anticipated. I came away with a gain of 6 lbs. I may not have gained allot of weight, but I have felt horrible all month. I actually miss my clean diet and fuel.

The month was not a total loss. For the first time in three years, I am rested, relaxed, motivated and injury free. These were my main goals for December. I knew I had to be at this level to begin the Ironman training.

I started exercising last week. I have been on my MTB several days last week and this week. The first couple of rides were horrible. I felt heavy, sluggish and I am fairly certain I was sweating sugar from all of the sweets I have been eating. One of the side affects of not maintaining a balanced diet is fluctuating blood sugar. The result has been sugar cravings galore.
The rides this week were much better and I had an awesome 2.5 hour MTB ride yesterday. I almost felt like my old self. My legs were strong, but my cardio is a bit weak. That is to be expected from a long layoff. I got back on the treadmill this week to get my legs moving. I will start outdoor running this weekend and continue my preparation for the Marathon in March. I am so ready to get back to real training.

2008 was a great athletic year! For starters, I finally lost weight. I ended up almost 40lbs less than 2007. I finished my first Half-Ironman and completed a Half marathon in less than 2 hours. One of the most exciting things of 2008 was the fact that I finished those events without much training. I was dieting so I didn't have the full energy and power I plan to have next year.

2009 should be an awesome year. I plan to lose another 15 to 20 lbs by April 1st. This will allow me to be near my high school weight and allow me to train and race hard the rest of the year. I have three big events next year. I will start with my first marathon in March, then a 24 hour ride with Geo to support Arkansas Children's Hospital and finish out with the big daddy, a full Ironman. I have several events and goals scattered throughout the year, but those are the big ones.

I have a very important goal that I have been able to reach every year since I started it. The goal is to enhance the friendships I already have and create several new ones. I have always been blessed with an abundance of friends. I would like to take a moment to thank all of my friends who shared 2008 with me. I hope we can continue to share good times and share our friendships with others.

I wish you all a great 2009!