My kids are all on the Naughty List

Our annual tradition, the Santa photo, got a little out of hand this year!

It started out well....

And then it all fell apart.

And for all of you who always thought Santa was a dirty old man.....you were right!

Merry Christmas

Getting into the holiday spirit around here.

Candy making...and eating.

Puppies....not ours.  Little guys we were fostering for the animal shelter.

Things are getting very festive.

From my family to yours....peace, love and good health this Christmas. The rest is just cream.

Blogger buddies are the best

When I started blogging back in 2008 I never would have guessed that I would meet so many great people.There are a few in particular that I have really enjoyed following along on their adventures.

I "met" Alison when I first signed up for Ironman Arizona, a race she had also registered for and it was fun being able to talk to her about training and racing in the lead up to the ironman.  When I got injured and had to pull out of the race it was nice to be able to live vicariously through her and watch as she crossed the finish line and become and ironman.

A few months back I commented on one of her blog posts. She had just finished her last freezing swim before IMAZ and had a picture on her blog of her post-swim...( yes I stole this from your blog Alison...hope you don't mind!)

Anyone that knows me well realizes that I can't stand the cold and so when I saw this picture of Alison I had to comment on how awesome her mittens were.  And the next thing I knew....

Yes...she sent me a pair....

She is the bomb...

Now my digits will never be cold again.

Ironman Week

So much going on and yet nothing to write about.  How does that work?

My friends and teammates are headed down to Arizona today to compete in Ironman on Sunday.  There is a twinge of envy and sadness as I have watched them get packed and ready this week.  I won't be making the trip down but I'll be cheering them on from here.  And I'll be thinking of my friend Tristin as she takes on the challenge of finishing what her husband started when he signed up for the race a year ago.  As most of you know her husband and my coach and friend Scott Roy passed away earlier this year from a heart condition. It will be such an emotional journey for her but I'm sure Scott will be her guardian angel and get her across the finish line. Some of my blogger buddies are competing this week end too.  Good luck to  Beth and Alison - I will be stalking you both online. I know you will both have an awesome race.

My foot is slowly improving. Lots of PT and strength training.  Lots of gait analysis and work on improving my running form. I have already mentioned that my injury was the result of changing to the wrong shoe.While that is true I think that my funky running gait didn't do me any favours either. So now is the time to change it up and try to make improvements before real training starts. 

On the shoe front I am testing out Newton Distance U's. They are certainly different from anything I have run in before. I wanted to try them out to encourage a more midfoot strike. After seeing a video that my PT took of me running it was obvious that what I thought was a mid foot strike was actually an ugly heel strike.   So far so good but I will be sure to write a full review of them after I have given them a few more weeks of testing.

In other news my friend Catherine is flying in this weekend from Australia and then we are headed off to Leavenworth ( this little Bavarian themed village) for Thanksgiving.  Looking forward to some fun and relaxation.