Tonight, the magic happened.

Tonight was one of those nights, one of those nights where all I wanted to do was be done. I ran out of energy at work this afternoon and really the last thing I wanted to do was run 14km on the dreadmill... Oops I meant treadmill. 

I pushed and whined my way through the first 7 miles when I was about to quit. Ok truth be told I was ready to quit before I even started.  I picked up my phone and was about to text a friend and teammate asking how bad it would be to just it a night and quit there.  I stopped for a second and looked up.

It was then that it happened. What happened you ask? My gaze caught something on the other side of the room.  It was only for a moment but that was all it took.  What was it I saw that gave me what I needed to finish? It was my bib from my Ironman race last year. Seeing that bib, hanging in the place I had made for my medal reminded me that no matter how much discomfort I felt at that moment,  it couldn't come close to comparing what it felt like to not finish my race. Who knew a piece of paper could be so powerful!

not making the same mistakes twice

I changed up my training style somewhat this year and it's been going well.  I am getting into the 3/1 schedule with 3 weeks of building up the distance and intensity and followed by a week of recovery workouts. I find the recovery week very helpful and I really look forward to it during week 3 of the build.  It gives me the physical and mental rest required for the amount of training I'm doing.  This year I also moved my rest day to Monday and that also makes me very happy because do you know what today is? Mhmmm, it's Monday!

I'm also continuing with my lessons learned from 2013 and keeping up with strength training, not always as much as I should be but I'm working on it each week.  And now that I know how to read my program properly it really only takes 30 minutes to get through.  

my husbands dairy
 and gluten filled pizza pie

my almond flour
vegan cheese pizza

Another lesson or goal I have for this year is to enjoy training more and I am. This year I am making more time for socializing where I can but also keeping the balance of ensuring my workouts come first and sometimes that means having to say no and that's not always easy.

I'm also learning to fuel myself differently this year. I have been working with a Naturalpath and so far I am off gluten, dairy and grains...ya...that's right all three.  I have been getting creative in the kitchen or at least creative with the recipes I am working with these days.  Ever had almond flour vegan cheese pizza? Nope neither had I until a few weeks ago.  I won't lie, it has been challenging at times and I seriously have been missing breads, crackers, pretzels and white potatoes but I get to learn about a whole new variety of food and try things I would never have dreamed up eating before. 

Which pizza would you rather eat?  On second thought, don't answer that!