Welcome back, self.

Two years. Well, closer to a year and a half than two years, so I'll be kind to myself. A year and a half. What have I accomplished in a year and a half--other than the utter abandonment of this blog?

Time to play some catch-up...

Well, I crossed one more goal off of my list. I completed an Olympic distance tri. Of course, because of chronic injury issues, it took a year longer than planned. *sigh*

I'd originally planned that my first Oly would be in the summer of 2009. I hired a coach. I was on track. I was focused...

I got a sprained hip flexor, a resurfacing of knee issues and plantar fasciitis. I had to pull out of every race I'd planned, and spent the entire summer rehabbing. It was beyond frustrating.

Late last fall, I decided I was ready to jump back in. I immediately signed up for an Olympic distance race in my former college town (a couple thousand miles away from my current home). I also committed myself to an early spring 5k run in a town a hundred+ miles away. (Obviously I'd convinced myself that races should be rewarded with vacations.)

The race wasn't easy, but I did it. I suffered through wetsuit issues on the .9 mile swim, a cramping left quad during the entirety of the hilly 24.8 mile bike ride, and dual cramping quads for the 6.2 mile run. My body didn't really want to work on race day, but my mind didn't give it much choice. I finished.

Actually, so far this spring I've done two 5k runs, a sprint tri, and an Olympic. And there's an Olympic/International distance tri on my calendar in July--this time in New England. I'm sure I'll be sprinkling more races in over the summer, I'm just not yet sure what they'll be.

I do know one post-summer event already on my calendar, though. The Portland Marathon in October. That's going to hurt. I am so not a runner, but gave myself an entry to the marathon as a 35th birthday present back in February. (Don't look at me like that. You know you give yourself birthday presents, too. Oh, you don't give yourself painful presents like marathon entries? Well, why the hell not? What the fuck is wrong with you?)

Sadly, I didn't manage to sit down and write up any race reports for any of the races that I've done this year. I want to be better about that. And I want to be better about keeping track of my training...and processing all of the crap that goes through my head while I'm doing that training. So, I'm going to try to revive this particular blog. We'll see what happens...