December/January Recap

I've had several folks wondering when I'm going to update my blog, so here goes. We spent the second half of December up in Chicago visiting family and believe it or not, the weather was actually better up there than it was in Atlanta when we returned.

Before we headed up there, I was out riding around and saw that my "dream home" in the area was up for sale again...and this time it was a foreclosure, so it was actually within the realm of possibility. So after much hmming and hawing and lots of hours with lenders, inspectors, and realtors, we have a contract on this house.





This home is on 3.2 acres and most importantly, it is the same distance to the trails as our current home. It is also about a 3-4 minute walk from the front door to this waterfall.



Needless to say, with an impending move, I've been pretty busy with cleaning up our current house and countless trips to Goodwill and incessant Craigslist posting in an attempt to get rid of at least 50% of the 15 years worth of crap that is taking up the majority of our current basement.

At the beginning of January, I officially quit my engineering job to stay home with Jayden. Everyone is right...they grow up way too fast and I'd never forgive myself if I didn't spend these first few years with her as much as possible.

Training has been few and far between because I haven't really been motivated, mostly due to the weather (an entire week of snowy and icy roads) and the fact that I've been busy with the Dirty Duathlon planning, Jayden, and lots of cleaning and little tasks to get our current home ready for sale.

I did two cyclocross races in January, against my better judgement. The first was after the week of snow, mostly because I was feeling guilty that I didn't do any sort of moderately strenuous activity that week (does lifting boxes count???). The course was a mess and so was I. After not riding any bikes for a while, I don't know why I thought I'd be able to handle my cross bike in the mud. Ugly. Ugly. Ugly.

After falling down and countless foot dab saves, I told myself I would get out and ride my cross bike before the State Championship race the following weekend. Never happened, shame on me.

I woke up with a headache and upset stomach, debated skipping the State Champs, but figured I'd regret it if I didn't go. After an extra hour of rolling around in bed, I finally got everything packed up (minus my spiked bike shoes which would have come in handy...) and we headed to Rome.

So again, by the time we race, we get another slick course that I just couldn't seem to get in the groove on. I got tangled up with a rider in front of me early in the race, had a slow recovery, and it just went downhill from there. There was even a great run up that I couldn't take advantage of since my shoes were sliding all around. Super poop. I somehow managed to hang onto 3rd place, but it was not pretty. I think the jersey I wore is cursed!

So that is the only exciting news thus far in 2011. I've been going to the pool with Jayden, so I think that is what I'm going to keep doing until the sun starts shining again, the temps get above 50 and all the mud goes away.

Chris and I are running in the Red Top Rumble in two weeks. I can't say I'm in as good of running shape as I'd hoped, but I am in better running shape than I've ever been in the past, so I guess that is a positive. We'll see how it goes...