Winter is shaping up... and finding balance

I've won the first battle with inertia! 

Here is my workout plan for this winter:

Mondays: Rec Center spin class at 6am. I need aerobic activities.
Tuesdays: bouldering/climbing from 7-9pm, followed by slacklining.
Fridays: triathlon training for women through the Rec Center 6:30-7:30am. I start tomorrow. The coach called me tonight to let me know we're starting with swimming. I'm nervous... I'm not a triathlete... what am I getting myself into?
Weekends: try to get outside for a family hike, snowshoeing, etc. as weather allows
January only: One weeknight per week, personal Pilates training session for an hour with Hayley. I've committed to 5 sessions with her, and am wishing I had the money to do more. She's really great and I know I'd progress quickly if I had the luxury of a bigger budget. That's okay- part of the challenge is learning to make due and being creative.

So for January, I have four work-out sessions built into my schedule each week. A fifth optional one that includes family is nice. Two rest days are plenty. Then in late February, I'll add a Rec Center Pilates class once I'm done working with Hayley, if we can afford it.  After that, some time in late March/April, I hope to start tai chi.  I'm wait-listed for the tai chi club which meets Tuesdays from 5-7pm and Sundays from 10-12. This will allow me to maintain 4-5 workouts a week.

Balancing Family

Here's a description of the topography of my life right now, in brief:

My daughter just started preschool, and I didn't want to introduce too much change to her world by suddenly running off to exercise, or by sticking her with strangers at the childcare facilities at the gyms. Also, my husband has some important personal projects he barely gets to work on as it is, and I didn't want to ruin his chances of ever getting to make progress on those. Oh and then there's the infant...

It took some effort, but I found two early morning sessions I can do before my husband leaves for work, and the other two are in evenings when he can be home again. My daughter is only really impacted by one of these evenings, since the other is when she spends the night with the grandparents anyway. And the baby loves his papa, so no problem.

That leaves the weekends and evenings mostly open for family time and other personal pursuits.

Here we go!

Watertribe: Where it all began

WaterTribe 

As far as blogs go, this is my foundation from which I will sally forth into the information overload of the internet. From what I can tell, Watertribe is the hosting organization for many endurance paddling races, and the Ultimate Florida Challenge is the brainchild of its founder. His blog is a mine of useful ideas and facts.

I just joined the Watertribe community under the handle "HappyCrab" which was my Dad's handle as a fisherman and avid boatman/water enthusiast.

From this site, I've found another site that has me salivating. This fellow Marek Uliasz has a cornucopia of links, posts, and guest articles that I will feast on all month and probably longer. Mmm! The nice thing is that he appears to be local. He has posts about many of the rivers, lakes and reservoirs around Colorado and neighboring states, races to be found nearby, training tips, and gear reports.

And from his site I found This great link! Super articles and links- I could lose myself in this site for hours. And another! This last one, Paddling.net, has gear reviews that I'll enjoy reading, plus much more. Holiday feasts are over? January is looking rich to me!