its a winter wonderland!

Each week goes by with a ton of fun and the opportunity to learn new things, meet new friends and enjoy the fact that in the morning my feet hit the floor and I can love life for another day!  Friday's in the winter are particlarly awesome!  At the end of that day, a whole new adventure starts....the crazy drive north, the usual white out conditions....the joy of getting to ski country!  Ladies and gentleman, it's FRIDAY!  Ski day eve!
This week seemed particularly nuts so my ride up this afternoon was a great pleasure.  It marked the end of getting back into the routine, putting up with some stressful moments and the start of what is going to be one of the greatest years of my life!  I guess it goes without saying that it is a week that I enjoyed.  This weekend also marks the start of the winter ski teaching and coaching season.  Tomorrow I start teaching a technical ski program for the next 9 weeks as well as 2 other groups of advanced skiers looking to turn it up a notch!  This winter I have taken a particular keen interest in knocking the socks off off those that I am teaching and coaching!  Tomorrow is going to be a great day!
This week was a great week getting into the swing of a training commitment.  Early in the week I was kind of hesitant after a less than committed holiday season.  I did keep at it, but, food and drinks were not seeming to cooperate.  But as I started the week and kicked it into gear it all flowed together nicely.  I had a tough workout on Tuesday in the pool. only to be followed by a smooth effort 2 days later.  I spent more time than ever stretching, I already feel the benefits of it.  I officially started weights this week, a truly satisfying effort.  After day one with weights I thought my workouts would suffer, they only seemed to be easier!  Today i had a great run after a couple of days off(since the Jan 2), I thought it would be nasty and slow.  I am not a fast runner by any means, today I knocked off 5k tempo run in under 5min/k.  Quite happy with that as I start to train for a couple of early spring races!   As a whole this week, I feel that the efforts of the past 2-3 months are starting to pay off a little.  And to top it off, I got on the scale tonight.  Wahoo!  As some may know, this whole IM thing started as the result of a bet that I could not lose weight.  Well, I did kick the pants off of the bet and then some.  It was a great moment.  When I was 20-25 I was likely in the best shape of my life, I had a vigour and excitement and a lack of bad habits and excuses.  I worked out every day and loved doing it, I missed the days that I could not.  I ate well and paid attention to my body and how it reacted to what I did. Most of those years I did not change my weight at all, I  was at a steady 187.  It has been a long time since my weight started with 18....  This afternoon I got on the nasty machine....I weighed 189!!!  This is awesome, without a conscious calorie effort I have reached another benchmark, I like the progress!  As I start my weight training and continue to gradually ramp my workouts this should translate into some great long term results.  I do have a couple of chips on my cycling shoulder that I need to settle, losing this weight while gaining strength should certainly help to settle that score(you know who you are)
As the day tomorrow is going to be outstanding, I now need to go and tune a pair of skis.  Tomorrow is a day for lighting fast and I want to be ready!  Happy weekend!  Cheers