First Blog and a New Year!

Well Happy New Year!!  I hope everyone had a nice new year and are now hard at work with their resolutions!!  This is my first blog ever, I felt inspired to blog about my experiences in training, racing, eating, TV, watching, and give my take on some aspects of men's fashion (limited).  This left me with a tough decision of where to start.....   How about I start by a little bio on my racing history... I started doing Tri/Running in 2007 with no real athletic background.  I had a cruiser hybrid bike, no knowledge of triathlons other than you swim (I didn't know how to do that), bike (yeah how tough is that I had a huffy growing up), and run (one foot in front of the other, check).  Well my rookie 2007 season shouldn't be called that it should be called short muscle bound bumkin wondering around, however I completed 3 triathlons, a few 5k's, a 1/2 marathon, and the NYC marathon.  What I lacked in skill, knowledge, budget, drive to train, I made up in my own drive to get better.  2008 was another year of a few races and acting like I was an athlete but not serious about the sport, but I picked up some training partners and began to understand that there was more to the sport than just showing up race day and wanting a T-shirt. 

2009 was the year I got serious, I bought an expensive bike, signed up for a 1/2 Ironman, and a Full Ironman, and was set on getting better.  I even got a coach and started training with an amazing group of people.  It was a great year of learning, training, racing, and I found a love for biking in it all.  I trained about 17-22+ hours per week for almost a full year and after compleing a number of Sprint tri's, 2 half ironmans, 1 full ironman, I was exhausted and was almost done with this crazy time consuming sport. 

2010 was my year of fun races I basically raced to stay in shape and completed 17 races with one (did not start), I did the TNT Time Trial Series and raced a Tri almost every weekend. It was awesome I finally found my balance, I could still eat anything I wanted and just race the calories off!  It was a great season with a few podiums, a 5k PR, bike split PR's, etc. 

Now's the time when all of us athletes must try to figure out our race calendar is going to look like for the year.  It's exciting but I really don't want to over extend myself this year.  Keeping a balance is key for my own personal sanity!  So here's what I'm thinking so far, Opus Criterium Series Race (This is a series bike race based on points over 6 crits on the same course), Tuesday Night TimeTrial Series (This series has 8 races, I will do 5 individual time trials on the 12 mile hilly course and probably 1-2 Team Time Trials with 2-3 other people, I am still looking at which Tri's I'm interested in, I am thinking about 2 sprints, 2 olympics, and 1 half Ironman. 

I'll post more on which ones I decide on or if you have any strong opinions let me know! 

Posts to come this week:  Reality TV, Off Season Food, Off season training, and mens suits!