Hi Everyone and Merry Christmas!!

I hope you’ve all had a terrific holidays full of all of the best things in life (you know, sleep, chocolate, family, friends, presents and stuffing; in no particular order). I’ve been off work since December 19^th, and it’s been an amazing break.

I spent December 20^th – 25^th at home with Matt and my family getting ready for Christmas, doing last minute Christmas shopping, wrapping, baking and eating an otherwise totally unacceptable amount of chocolate. We drove 8 hours to Sault Ste. Marie to visit with my grandparents from December 26^th – 29^th and got home late last night to the sad, sad realization that we only have 3 days left of vacation until we’re back at work for another year. That being said, there’s so many huge events and milestones coming up in 2013 that I’m definitely starting to get excited to ring in the New Year tomorrow night!!

I’ll admit that I may have been a bit tough to buy for this year. Usually I’m pretty vocal about wanting this, that or the other thing (not just at Christmas, I’m talking all the time), but this year I just didn’t really have many ideas when people asked what I wanted for Christmas. Given that I’ve taken on this totally insane goal Half Ironman next September, I guess it was only fitting that I got a whole bunch of triathlon gear from various people for Christmas!

I’m starting to realize that holy crap is there ever a lot of gear that goes along with doing triathlons. It’s not a cheap sport. I got stuff for Christmas that I never even knew existed, but that I totally need, and it got me thinking about what other stuff I may need and not even know about!

Garmin Forerunner 410 GPS Watch (in pink!!)

For my outdoor runs I’ve been doing the totally old school thing and driving my car out to map out a route that’s the length that I wanted to do. Thankfully Matt stopped the madness and got me a GPS watch for Christmas so I can just put on the sneaks and GO! And bonus, it’s pink. Bless his soul.

Oakley Sunglasses (also in pink!!)

The equivalent of Tiffanys for runner girls. I’ll admit that there’s no way on earth that I’m cool enough to wear Oakley sunglasses when I run, but maybe I’ll get there eventually. These were also a gift from Matt, they are absolutely wonderful for cutting the winter glare off the snow (yes, we actually have snow in Southern Ontario!) and will be great for the summer months too. I’m hoping mine fare better then Matt’s, the day after he bought his pair back in the summer, he opened the door of my car right into his face and took a huge chip out of the lens. The optimistic view: that lens could have been his eye ball! Now we call them the most expensive safety glasses that he’s ever owned.

Squirt Water Bottle and Bike Water Bottle Holder

Me being the total bike rookie that I am, I thought that bikes came with water bottle holders on them. Turns out that thousands of dollars and you still have to buy the dang thing separately!!!  Matt’s parents bought me the bottle and the holder (and tons of other gear as well), and the bottle has been a God send so far. Ever tried to do a spin class with a screw-off top water bottle? After pouring nearly the entire bottle down my chest in one of the first RPM classes I did back in October, I quickly learned that it was going to be squirt bottle or nothing.

Race Bib Band

I wasn’t 100% sure what this was when I first opened it, I originally thought that it was some sort of water bottle belt or gel belt or something to be worn during races to carry stuff for you, but it turns out that it’s actually a band that you can clip your race bib to so that you don’t have to poke holes in your clothing. Also, for races like triathlons where you’re going to be changing clothes lots or winter races where you may not be exactly sure if you’re going to be running in your over-layer or not until you’re outside at the start line you don’t have to worry about re-pinning your bib to different clothes, you can just clip the band off and put it on again!

Bike Lubricant

One of those things that you would NEVER ever think about, until the chain on your bike sticks when you’re in the middle of a 90km bike ride. It scares me to death to think of all of the other bike maintenance things that I don’t know/haven’t even thought of!!! I’m in desperate need of “Bike Maintenance 101”.

There were lots of other things in my stocking like socks, running hats, lip balm, Lululemon pants, so I’m out of excuses – 2013 is training year!!

I did manage to get in some classes and a couple of triathlon workouts over the holidays as well, so all in all I don’t think my training has fallen too far behind. The Chilly Half Marathon is coming up in about 2 months, and I’ve got a lot of work to do to get ready. I’ll be posting a training plan for this specifically on my Training Logs page, and I’m going to do my absolute darndest to stick to it.

No really, I swear 😉

Happy New Year all!!! Here’s to an incredible year full of sweat, hard work, laughter and fun!! Before you leave, tell me, did Santa leave any triathlon or running gear in your stocking this year!? What are your plans for New Years Eve 2012?!

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