365 days ago felt like yesterday

This coming May will mark the one year anniversary of my move to Colorado from NYC.  It was the start of an adventure in which I had no idea what to expect out of it.  Turns out I've learned a lot, lost a lot, gained more than is fair for one year and am still figuring out where this adventure will take me.  Or better yet, where to take this adventure.

As my future lays unknown, something I've never been quite good at handling, I am thankful for the friendships that quickly formed since moving here.  I am in great company when I am with my friends and know that they spoil me with their shenanigans.

I have been on some great trips over the past year and for my own sake, as I have the worst memory ever, I want to list most of them here to reference later on in blog life.

Some Highlights (as I'm sure I'm forgetting some):
- Multi-day Canoe trip on the Green River
- Denver Rock n Roll Marathon
- NYC 2012 Marathon
- Snow Caving
- Moab weekend - half marathon!
- Hiking around Boulder
- Snowshoeing around Boulder
- A show at Red Rocks
- Rock Climbing outside
- First Duathlon
- Trip to New Zealand

Although most of the past year has been an amazing trip I also had to let go of a large part of life.  Someone I always thought I would be side by side with.  I am lucky that this person is still in my life and as we continue to figure out how a friendship after a relationship works (or if it does!) I am grateful to him for his constant advice, free of charge.  He is a great man and will realize it some day.

I must also admit that I  go through stages of home sickness still.  This kind of baffles my mind as I'm not sure what to call home anymore.  I certainly miss my parents and having them within a short train ride away.  I love them for letting me travel 2000 miles away while always remaining supportive.  I miss the city where I feel like I finally became an adult and learned to take care of myself, through several blunders of course.

Now I guess I call Colorado my home.  It's a beautiful state with so much more for me to explore.  With Spring coming back around I can't help but think about what lies in the year ahead.  I look forward to exploring a  new relationship that has me constantly sitting on the edge of my seat in anticipation.  I both love and am easily perplexed by my lack of ability to read this guy, constantly finding myself happily surprised by him when we are together and even the times we are apart.  I am looking forward to more hiking/camping trips, perhaps a solo attempt one of these nice weekends?! And to a hut trip with eight of my closest friends (and no, none of them are cats!).

So here's to the unknown future and to my attempt and grabbing life by the horns.  Cheers to many more adventures and lots of life still to live.

Young and Wiser

I have been learning a lot about myself lately.  Some good and some bad.

I've learned that I can preserver through physical pain for over two hours in a hot desert canyon but have a hard time persevering through the pain of letting go of friends as they move forward in their own version of a hot desert canyon.

I've learned that what I do with myself today proves to me over and over that there is a lot in this world that I have yet to explore and experience but that what I do with myself today doesn't fix past errors.

But I've also learned that what we do in our past makes us who we are today and all you can do is take every experience as a learning opportunity.  

Some of my favorite people in life are those that are able to take the time and energy to reflect on themselves and make themselves better for it.  I admire these people.

Cheers to growing older, stronger, bigger and opening our hearts to learning from ourselves and loving others as they learn from their own selves.

Too Many Hobbies

Since moving out to Denver I've been exposed to a seemingly endless choice of new hobbies. Everything from road bikes, bike racing, duathlons, a potential triathlon in my future!, camping, hiking, rock climbing and the list goes on and on. It is amazing and I feel like I have been given a second life. Who knew this world existed?! Of course these activities can be done and ARE done in the Northeast, I was just never in the group on kids that made a point of taking advantage of what nature has to offer. Now I get that chance and have met some amazing people that are more than eager to exploit the excitement I have in trying out all of these new activities. I'll admit it's taking a toll on my budget... but it's the reason I work, right? To enjoy the time I'm not working. 

Here are some of the new and exciting purchase to be used this weekend when I do some of my first winter camping.

First off, my new backpacking bag! So excited to give this guy a try. The bag received great reviews for being a light backpacking bag that still hold enough supplies for 2-5 days. Check it out here.

And the second big purchase for the upcoming camping adventures is my new sleeping bag. Rated at 15 degrees, this bag should keep me incredibly warm on those cold winter nights. Can't wait to give this one a try. The best part is that it's petite and fits me perfectly, so unless your 5ft don't even bother asking if you can borrow it! More details and photos to come after this weekend's camping trip!

Duathlon Debut

Last weekend I was talked into, I mean really had my arm twisted, into trying out my first Duathlon. It was promised to be a pretty laid back race and sounded like a good opportunity to either begin my multi-sport adventure or decide if my multi-sport career would be short lived.

This particular race was the second of a three race series in the Chilly Cheeks Duathlon series. All three races are set up different from each other. This one started out with a 1.4 mile run, 3.6 mile bike, 2.5 run, 7.2 bike with a final 50 yard sprint to the finish.

I must admit I was feeling a lot of prerace jitters from arriving early and seeing a lot of real serious cyclists with TT bikes pulling into the lot. I started feeling like this might not be as laid back as I originally thought. But I was prepared to stick it out even if it meant I would come in last place. The race began on time and we were off with the running start. This was about the time I realized how heavy my legs already felt from a pretty tough training week during the prior week. The duathlon was a fairly last minute decision and one not well prepared for. I spent the first run trying to warm up my legs to the idea that we were going to be doing this motion for at least the next hour or hour and a half, eventually they started to get the idea and began moving a bit better.

After a quick first run I hopped on the bike picking up things to remember for next time (ie what gear I leave my bike in from the warm up so I don't start in a huge gear straight off of running!). I realize that there are little things that I just need to spend time on to get a bit quicker, mounting and dismounting a bike being one of those things. Next time I promise myself to be quicker, smoother and better overall in the mounting area. The first loop of the bike course felt good. In retrospect I think I should have pushed harder during this portion of the race as I was holding back knowing there was a lot of race left.

The bike loop went by quickly and I was suddenly back to running. This portion of the race was a 2.5 out and back... my favorite. It was interesting to feel my legs tranisition from the bike to running. It's not as easy as you would think, it just wasn't as fluid as I imagined. I felt like I was sort of retraining the muscle to this new activity. My legs were definitely tired at this point of the race so I just went with some of my running go to mantras when I'm trying to pick up some speed on really tired legs.

The out and back turned out to be really hilly, it almost seemed like once you got over one hill you were right on the back of another. So needless to say I was pretty slow during this portion of the race and slightly disappointed at my performance here. I just assumed that the running would be easy for me but really it's all a lot of leg work and was tough. The best part of this portion of the race was getting to see some friends on their way back from the out and back. They both looked great even though I knew we were all tired and it pushed me to keep going. It lifted me up a bit and kept me pushing.

Another lesson was learned on this run course, TAKE OFF YOUR HELMET in the transition area! I was so excited to keep going with the race I just started running off with my helmet on.

On to the final two loops of the bike course. Overall my legs were done here so I just started talking myself up the hill we first encountered on each of the loops. Focusing my thoughts on controlling my breathing and focusing on my cadence kept me from getting bogged down in the burn in my legs. Overall this segment of the race felt great. Granted I was still pretty slow compared to most of the competitors. Given that I've had my bike all of 2 months and this was the first real time taking it out and pushing myself I feel really good about my performance.

First Duathlon crossed of the bucket list. As far as my future in multi-sport activities... I'd say it's pretty good.