Felt in 2009!

I'd like to officially welcome FELT aboard as my new bike sponsor for 2009!

Felt, the company that supplied both 2008 Beijing Olympic gold medalists, Emma Snowsill and Jan Frodeno, with the bikes that helped race them to victory, has joined my my incredible sponsor family. I am honored to say that I will be riding the Felt AR, their new aero road bike, for both my road bike setup, for ITU draft legal racing, and for my time trial setup, for all my non-drafting races. My light-weight carbon speed machines will be accessorized with Shimano components and Spinergy wheels.



For more information on their bicycles check out Felt online!

Happy Holidays!

Happy holidays from down under! This was the first time I spent Christmas away from my family and it was certainly a new experience. My family was terrific and organized a box with some presents that arrived a good week in advance so I had some gifts to open that morning. All my training partners were impressed with my ability to wait until Christmas to open them.

Christmas morning we got a knock on our door at 6:15 am with two very excited faces who eagerly announced that "Santa came" and we had to hurry up to get upstairs so we could watch them open their presents. Those two faces are the two kids (7 and 4) who live upstairs and they were kind enough to invite us to watch them open their gifts. Christmas isn't the same when you don't have little kids around because their excitement is really what makes the day so special. So despite the really early wake up, I quite enjoyed watching them get their new bikes and scuba gear.

After a hard bike time trial, because yes, training continued, I had two very delicious meals and a very full belly to show from it all. Fortunately, we were all allowed to enjoy the day and forgot about our meal plans for the one day. It would have been hard to pass up on a small slice of cheesecake!

The following day I put in calls to the states to speak with various factions of my family. It was great to talk to everyone and a good compromise to not being able to be home with them.

It has been back to work since then. I am almost done with the final stages of this training block and at the end of this week will move into the next phase of my training. I'm excited to have more of a run focus and to start addressing some of my big weaknesses! I just have to keep plugging away, one day at a time.

SKINS

I would like to officially welcome SKINS as sponsors for 2009 and 2010!

SKINS produce the worlds best compression and therapeutic garments. They will be providing me with all of my therapeutic and compression wear for travel, recovery and cycle and run training. I am extremely excited to work with them and to give their company and products my full endorsement.

Every time I fly, I wear my SKINS travel tights. This prevents blood from pooling in my legs allowing me to recover from the travel more quickly. This is incredibly important for pre race travel. Now, working with SKINS, I have the opportunity to gain an advantage by using their garments on a daily basis which will help my muscles to work more efficiently during training and to recover faster!

Check out www.skins.net for more information about the company and the products that they offer.

The fastest update ever...

My computer crashed. I woke up and it was dead, so internet and updating has taken a backseat to the rest of my life since access has been limited.

I am back training now. After a week up in Dalby with my coach, renovating a series of flats that he bought up there, I was thrilled to get back to work and to start training again.

My knee is doing great. I am back running and have it completely under control. I think it just wanted a little time off!!

Most of the other girls have arrived and they are fantastic. The group is really great and everyone seems to get along really well, so far. I think it will be just the right balance of competition and fun.

I have some sponsor updates coming in the next week, so stay tuned for those!

A big thank you!

2008 has come to an end... well as far as triathlon racing goes.

It was a fantastic year for me. I kicked it off back in Chile last January with a 9th place finish at the points race there and followed that up with a handful of other top 10's including a strong debut at Alcatraz with a 7th place finish there (and the 4th fastest run time) and a 4th place finish at the Athlone, Ireland ITU race. I finally mastered my swim and lead out a number of races, which was exuberating and an enormous confidence builder and on top of that, I found my biking legs again and posted the fastest bike split at two races as well. I moved up from 276th in the World at the start of the year to 115th at years end. A huge accomplishment, but one that still leaves me room for improvement!

I have a lot more learning to do and hopefully there will be a lot more upward climbing in the rankings, but 2008 was certainly a fresh start for me and I'm looking forward to seeing what the new beginning here in Australia will provide my racing with in 2009.

I want to express my deepest gratitude to all of my sponsors for the 2008 season.
Ultima Replenisher
Garmin
Puma
TYR
Oakley
XTerra/ Blue Seventy
Masi Bikes
Spinergy
Power Crunch
QLink
... and of course my most amazing friends and family, namely my mother, my siblings, my Santa Monica family and support crew and my best friend Jay.

I simply could not have achieved what I did without your support through it all. Many of you have been around since the beginning and I cannot thank you enough for sticking with me even during the hardest times. Now, the focus is on London, and I hope that many of you will be around to join me there in 4 years time! Let the jouorney continue!

I would also like to extend a thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read my blog, and to make comments. I thank you for your support and I hope that you continue to enjoy reading about my journey. I am grateful to have you along for the ride as well.

There will be some exciting changes for 2009 and news of that will be on the way soon!
Until then, I'm off to water run in the rain!!