Any of you that know me, will know that I never go into anything half-hearted...it's all or nothing.  Cookie and I got together in my wild, rugby-playing, monster drinking & smoking days nearly 10yrs ago and we have been through numerous phrases since then.  I remember when we first starting talking about me giving up work for triathlon about 18months ago and his main motivation (other than to make me happy!) was to have some of the old Claire.  When you are a serious amateur athlete with a full-time demanding job, you have to focus 100% on work and training, there simply isn't time to do anything else.  It was so easy to carry this philosophy over when I became a full-time triathlete, but it was becoming clear after 6months that I was going to turn into one boring cookie, probably self-destruct with triathlon overload and drive everyone around me completely insane! 

Now I am not saying, you should turn into a party animal or give less than 100% in training but you should take some time out to have a bit of fun every now and then.  I often go through hell and back during training (thanks Siri!) and you simply have to have some release or you can't keep submitting your body to that kind of pain on a daily basis.  I am lucky enough to have some very understanding friends and most of all, boyfriend that they have all stood by me through yet another learning process.  The good news is that I seem to finally have found something of a happy medium and the process started over Xmas (thanks Jody for leading the way!)  I came back to training and racing in January, feeling refreshed mentally and reading to go.  The only problem now is working out how I can maintain all the training hours, eating & sleeping time plus not loose brain cells at a rate of knots.  There is definitely something in the saying, "Use it or loose it."  I was only laughing about this the other morning with training partner, Susan Williams who was a rocket scientist until she quit full-time work a year ago.  Here was two supposedly very intelligent women in their prime trying to calculate a tip for breakfast....would you believe it took us the best part of 10minutes!

I have been back in Boulder for two weeks now and love training here, even if it is way too cold for my liking. We landed from Argentina in a snow storm and I couldn't believe it when Siri took us to the pool for training that afternoon.....it was OUTSIDE!!  "I don't think you understand.....I don't DO snow."  I haven't seen snow for about 6yrs, yet alone train in it so it was a big shock to the system.  I will never complain about running from the Wanchai changing room in HK to the pool in winter again!  I am slowly getting used to the weather and although it is cold, the sun is out most days and the scenery is breath-taking.  I would definitely be fine if we had a car but scooter driving in these conditions has been entertaining to say the least. 

I was meant to stay about 15km outside of town with Tim (President of Boulder Tri Club) who had kindly given me a room, but I just couldn't make the commute twice a day into town.  The wind chill factor on the scooter is unbearable after about 10-15min so I ended up staying with an old training mate from the summer (Jim) & Brendan who I am training with. At least the ride to Siri's place and the pool from there was only 20min as opposed to 45min. I haven't seen another person on a scooter or motorbike since I arrived here and to say we have had some crazy looks is an understatement.  Brendan has been riding on the back so we can get to training and we must look like Dummer & Dummer flying through the snow dressed up like a pair of Eskimo's! 

We had one other stop that day to collect some Colorado wine for our home-stay. I had little expectation, so we decided tasting was a must.  I was pretty surprised to find a really good Chardonnay & Merlot, but of course we had to taste everything just to make sure we got the best one's....God life as a triathlete can be really trying sometimes!  We also managed to polish off their beautiful display of cheese and biscuits before hitting the road again.

As my friends are scattered all over the world, it is so rare to be able to be with one of them when they really need it.  Jim's wife has just left him so he was trying to pull his life back together....we have been through two weeks of ups and downs, tears and laughs but thankfully he is beginning to see a brighter future ahead.  It has been a good couple of weeks and Jim has provided us with some distraction from the killer sessions Siri has been putting us through.  The training group is really coming together and we all get along really well so our camp in California should be fun.  We went out the other night as Jim was leaving town for a medical rotation, I still can't he will be a Doctor in 6months - SCARY!  It was fun to get together away from the training sessions and we are beginning to really bond as a team....it's amazing how much stronger a group of people encouraging each other can be than an individual.  I know triathlon is an individual sport and most of us race against each other but to have support, encouragement and a feeling of sharing the good & bad times, makes us all so much stronger.
Later, Claire