One Step/Stroke/Revolution at a Time: A New Year!

Well, folks, I woke up this morning realizing that it had been nearly four months since my last post.

Ooops. *grin*

I've been enjoying the time off from training hard -- had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas with SJV down with my mother in Missouri. In fact, we ran the inaugural Turkey Trot 5k in Mom's little town, which was super fantastic. Of course, there were hills - which threw both SJV and I off a bit. But still, I did pretty well - came in Fourth! *sigh* When, oh when, will I end up on the podium!

Christmas was super as well - although I caught a mighty cold, and was less than excited about that. But what I was excited about: new pedals and shoes for my bike! Yes, SJV got me the Ultimate Gift: speed! (Or, at least, the inability to blame my bike setup for my lack thereof.)

So now, hopefully, I'll be able to whip past at least some people on the bike. (A girl can dream, you know.)

To that end, I've already started on this year's training. For the past few weeks, I've been amping up - so maybe you, too, are gearing up for the coming season. I have to say that it's added a little motivation, and a little hope, to the winter days. It's a great way for me to remind myself that soon -- very soon -- I'll be out on the lakefront path in 80 degree temps. After the winter we've had, that's a welcome thought!

And, with that, I leave you with a few photos from the past few months. Turkey Trot and Christmas have to wait -- still need to transfer those from SJV's camera. But these are from our Halloween celebration - both at home and in Montreal, where we spent a long weekend, and from our trip to Atlanta, where we met up with my sister and fam.