Beautiful Fall

Having missed fall last year, (what with traipsing around New Zealand and all), I’m feeling extra lucky to be home and soaking up this amazing autumn that we are currently experiencing in Victoria.

The colours of this season all seem so vivid and so bright!

The blue skied days have been amazing (even if today has more of a grey tinge) and I’m pretty sure the leaves are extra crisp and vibrant this year.

I love crunching the freshly fallen leaves under my feet as I run, or hearing them rustle under my tires as I pedal my bike. Rusty seems to like running through the piles of leaves on the sides of the roads too, and watching his joy never gets old.

Another favourite odd little pleasure is stepping on a freshly fallen pine cone and feeling that slow "crunch" underfoot. Scraping the ice off my car windows, and yet still needing sunglasses is pretty awesome too.

Aside from the colours and brisk, bright days, (and scarves and boots and chunky sweaters) another thing I’ve been enjoying about this fall so far has been getting back into a bit of structure and routine on the training front.

I took some time off post-TransRockies (and absolutely loved it) but when October 1^st hit, it was time to get back at it. When I checked my training calendar and saw all the lovely planned workouts, I may have been, oh, just a little bit excited. [As much as I loved and needed the “do what you feel like” month post-TRR, I think I like structure more. More simply put, I like having someone tell me what to do – it gets me off my ass.]

I’ve started back training with Kelly this year, and you know, it’s great. It was nice to have a bit of a break and learn some new things and train with a different coach for a season (especially when it was such a different season for me), but there is something very comfortable and familiar about working with Kelly again and I’m really happy to be back under his guidance. I’ve got big goals for IMCdA, and I think with his help, I’ll achieve them.

Training isn’t anything crazy right now, mainly just easy workouts, redeveloping my routine, working on my strength, and getting in the habit of early mornings and the ol’ two-a-days. And you know, I am really enjoying it – especially my early mornings at the pool! (Remind me of that in June when I'm so sick of training and just want the race to be over, mm'kay?).

So yeah, there isn’t anything mind blowing or awe-inspiring happening in my life at the moment, but well, I’d say, so far, this fall has been pretty darn good.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!