exciting times

I have been using study breaks for meetings. Meeting with new athletes, some new sponsors, and about camps. (December 5th please come quick.... last day of semester). Each time I shake hands with someone I am left with the feeling of enthusiasm. My visions for growing this multisport community are coming to fruition. More than a business Train-This is about building community.

This summer we will be running not one but three camps, at the beginning, middle and end of the summer. I get to work with some really great people in organizing these, they'll be about different things and they are in gorgeous locations.

In the next few months we will revise, refresh and update the website also!

In addition to the Train-This affiliate that we've got in Washington DC, I am excited to be bringing on an assistant coach, and subsequently expanding what we have to offer in the community. It's such an amazing feeling to see and know how we have grown in this economy and in this area. To be closing the books and fully concentrate on what I love to do is an opportunity I am excited to have.

I will still be a pediatric emergency nurse, less hours but that's something I am passionate about as well. So much of my nursing experience carries over to what we do here, more than you could think or imagine!

I am looking forward to traveling to some educational events, conventions..... I feel like a sponge and there are so many people I want to learn from.

So that's where we are headed in the business sense.

In the personal athletic endeavor I am so excited that Clearwater is just 2 weeks away. I look forward more than anything to the sun, the salt water, traveling with my bike. Adventure. Seeing what I've got on race day, knowing what I am capable.

After 2 overload weeks I am currently enduring a recovery week. My instructions are very simple and I need to read them every single day:

Rest like its your job. This week is more important than the previous two.....do whatever it takes to finish it 100 percent recovered. If that means taking workouts easier than prescribed or even missing a few.....do it.

Yesterday that meant cutting a bike workout short. Today in Masters my shoulders ached so I cut a few yards off the 500's..... even though I wanted to fight through it .... but that's for next week. Harder than shitting myself is stopping. Harder than barfing in my mouth is slowing down when my natural reaction is "pain is good!"..... because this week I have to absorb the efforts of the last 2 weeks.

As I work in flu central 2 days a week I also have to take extra precautions to stay healthy. I have had the flu, and I am just being reasonable about wearing a mask at work and of course washing my hands eight trillion times a minute.

This weekend I glue on the race tires. Next week a paper is due. The following week an exam and then finally I get to board that plane and fly away.

The most exciting things however is a birthday party between now and then. Somewhere very exciting. My little baby boy will be 9 years old on November 9, 2009. (of course that was planned upon conception.)

I stood back last evening as we went to Wegmans and he so very carefully paged through the cake book. He's had such a great year since we began at his school back in May. His specialist has been nothing short of amazing. He's got friends. He talks on the phone. He's got a BEST friend. He gets himself up, on the bus, independently. He can't wait to go to school. He's on the bowling team. Almost ready for the swim team. He's in cub scouts. He's reading, he's happy. He even joined the school chorus. Nothing on earth can be more amazing than a happy child. Especially one who has been through such frustration because he is different.

As he walked into Wegmans in his pajamas last evening a few people turned and looked like what is that kid doing? I felt full of admiration because for a while now, he's been comfortable being Luc. The kid with the strangely spelled common name, with the blond surfer hair, with the glasses that help him see the world, with the scar down the middle of his chest..... the kid who dances to the beat of his own drum and sees things in this world that I forget to see. The kid who will walk up to you, introduce himself and invite you to the party. The kid who .... even though he does not know you.... will walk up to you if you seem sad and just give you a random hug.

May he always have these qualities.

As I close the book on my semester December 1st I can't wait to be around to see even more of it.

More good things to come.