Shiny new things
It has been a week of shiny new things! In chronological order:
My graduation present came in! The Boy got me a custom bike to replace my Cervelo for Ironman. It is a weird bike with pretty mellow geometry (very un-Ironman) but the goal is that I am comfortable for training and after the race we can use it for credit card touring. It is exquisite, made in Colorado, and I am so thrilled to have such a beautiful representation of all the hard work that went into my doctorate.
I have a new niece! I’m sure I’m biased, but I think she is the most beautiful, perfect little thing in the world. I am the proudest Ukrainian/Polish Tia to a sweet little Basque/Japanese/Irish girl in the world.
This is a horrible picture of me, but I think it captures how excited I am to be holding her for the first time. Also, check out the blanket I knit her!
I have shiny new scratches in my skis after skiing early season conditions at Big Sky with my Big Brother-in-Law and my nieces. Montana girls are so awesome, and they owned me on the slopes, which just made me really proud.
In Ironman training news, I’ve been a champion at making sure I’m well-rested and carb loaded. I know the rest and carb-loading is about 9 months early, but this Thanksgiving was not about Ironman. When I was ultra-running, I was monomaniacal about my training and while I know the importance of sticking to a schedule and putting in the hard work, Ironman is AN important thing in my life, not THE important thing in my life. I’m pretty sure this is my last niece/nephew on this side of the family and I wanted to make sure that I enjoyed the very limited family time that I get. I have next week to swim (highs in the teens!), bike (break in a Brooks saddle! Train on rollers!), and run (“just” run, and run happy).