Best of the Best and the Rest

Here are a few of my favorites of the honeymoon pics:

Tibetian Prayer flags - these were hanging up at the Highland wildlife reserve near the red panda!

This is in Glen Nevis (Scotland), Ben Nevis is on the right-hand side (you can't see the whole thing):

Little Falls at Glen Nevis:

Mums at the castle near Donegal in Ireland:

Waterfall at Glen Nevis (Valley of the tallest mountain on the Brittish Isles)

Overall I am really happy with how the photos came out, but I have to admit that God gave me some pretty good material to work with out there (credit to whom it is due!). October was the perfect time to go - still beautiful weather, not too cold, but no crowds. Also - the colors were changing making for very colorful scenery.

I shot about 50% in RAW - these were all jpg's. But I intend on learning the backend bit to photography at some point, so I figured I'd give myself some material to work with! If anyone has suggestions on photo processing programs, that'd be awesome. We're getting a new mac soon (yay pc buy program!) our computers are more than 10 years old if you add their ages! (so so sad... that's like a 100 years in human time!).

The rest: Jon and I have started on what we call the "FVChallenge" (stands for Fruits and vegetables challenge). the whole premise is that most of the time, we don't get enough fruits and vegetables. so we've taken this challenge. 1 point for 5 or more veggies in a day, 1 point for 3 or more fruits in a day and 1 point for not splurging (overeating, indulging in dessert, etc). Goal is 18+ points in a week (3 slip - ups allowed). Kelly gave me the idea (she started this a long time ago), but we just picked it up after bad eating on the honeymoon (too many fish and chips). so far, we are 3 days in and rocking it with 3 points each day so far!

Now, you may ask, what am I thinking about for my next challenge? well, the ironman competition decided to open up a Syracuse 70.3 (a half iron) for 2010. so, naturally, i'm thinking about it. pretty seriously. Right now, i'm trying to piece together a training plan for myself to prepare, but mostly to build confidence.

Mentally, the half marathon is the most daunting. So, to mitigate this butterflies in the pit of my stomach feeling, I'm thinking it might be a good idea for me to run in a half marathon on its own before a half-iron. I know people say that this isn't necessary, but it'd help me feel good about it (like - "oh yeah, ok, I've done this before"). I'm a BIG fan of the baby steps. so right now, it seems like a doable goal with a few months of training to be able to run a half marathon. BUT - it may seem crazy/daunting to jump into the half-iron. So I take it one step at a time. do the run first, get friendly with it - then we move onto the next goal & it doesn't seem so bad anymore.

In light of that, it looks like i'll be training for a half-marathon in early springtime, all the while maintaining my swim and cycle fitness (maintaining, not necessarily improving). Then, after a week or so rest after the run, I'll commence Half-iron training. I think what would make this a great plan is if I could find someone to relay a different half-iron with me early in the season (june timeframe - maybe the rev3 in CT). that way, I could swim/run & work that extra intermediate step into the plan!!!

So, these are basically the beginning thoughts to my 2010 triathlon training schedule. The one race I know I'll be in: the Iron Girl!!! the one race that scares the snot out of me: Syracuse 70.3. The race that I wish I could do (to compare results from 2009) but already know I can't (D's wedding): Skinneyman/I'm all that.

I'll end with this: in Ireland AND Scotland, pretty much everywhere we went, I declared was the "perfect/ideal location for a triathlon" beautiful scenery, water on all sides, mountains, country roads - how could you go wrong?