Happy 2012!

2012 will be the year of.....more blog posts? Maybe. It seems that 140 characters or less suits my busy schedule more. Anyway, there is A LOT going on this year and the hardest thing will be to not be overwhelmed and to "enjoy the journey" as they say. Not only do we have Southern Cross coming up next month, we have also been granted the National Ultra Endurance Series finale race this year at Fool's Gold 100. Speaking of Fool's Gold, we have been wanting to add a running event in tandem with the mountain bike race so this is the year...we will have a ~10km Adventure Run as well on the day after the mtb race. It's all really exciting and it's been fun to work on.

This is also the year to finish my PhD work. I finally have narrowed down my research topic and will be working hard this year with the goal of actually graduating in 2013.

...Which brings me to my racing plans! I will need to be a little more creative and resourceful with training this year because of school so I'm shifting my focus to try something new. I have more races than ever on my schedule but it's a mix of running, cross-country mountain bike (time to really work on speed now), AND several XTERRA off road duathlons and triathlons. Gulp. I have already started working on my running a bit and now it's time to dive into the swimming. As much as I will miss the NUE scene this year I am really, REALLY excited for this new challenge! Sure there will be a learning curve but I have an amazing coach and sponsors and know all the right people to go to for help so now it's just all about getting into it and doing the work.