All I Can Say Is I Am Sorry - It Has Been A While......

Wow,  I am not sure where to start.  I had many goals for 2010, I have hit some of them and not hit some others.  While I know this year is not quite over, for some reason the past few days have been very retrospective for me.  For sure I have been slack, slack, slack on posting to my blog.  If everyone had my password, you would see that I have started several posts but left them unfinished.  Why?  Not sure.  Some days, I think because I don't want to admit the truth, some days because I am not sure I want everyone to know what I am thinking, other days there was a distraction from a child, or a phone call or an email.   At any rate, for many reasons, there are posts unfinished.

I haven't completely taken a break from blog-land, I try to check all of the blogs I follow as frequently as I can.  Thanks to everyone who has been doing a great job of updating their blogs so I have some wonderful online friends to read about.  Let me see if I can catch you up on everything that has been going on this year.  I might repeat some notes or comments from a previous update, but I really want to check off my list.


Coaching - At the beginning of the year, I had mentioned that I was focused on growing my coaching knowledge and coaching business.  In order to do that, I needed to complete several coaching certifications and training classes.  What that meant for me as an athlete was this was not the year to race much, my budget had to be directed towards achieving my goals.

1.  USA Track and Field Level 1 Certified Coach - Done
2.  Team in Training Tier 2 Triathlon Coach Certification - Done
3.  Road Runner's Clubs of America Certified Coach - Done
4.  USA Triathlon Level 1 Certified Coach - Done

I am still in the process of finishing my USA Cycling Level 3 Coaching Certification and my USA Swimming Coaching Certification.  I am hoping to complete the exams for both of these before the end of the year.  Wish me luck.  As far as racing goes, I completed a few half marathons and a couple of triathlons.  Nothing super exciting but like I said this year was the goal of growing my business.

I was hired here in Florida to coach the Lake Nona YMCA's Tri Team Vortex.  We are 80 members strong.  This was a new experience for me.  While I have been coaching since 2004, this was the first time I had taken over a program that had been previously coached by another coach.  As I was learning about my team, I also had to prove myself as a leader and a coach and a person who accomplishes what she sets out to do.
After an amazing first season, our team came away with many, many firsts, many great accomplishments and many great rewards.  I think as a team we have grown and come together as a bigger family and I am looking forward to an even bigger 2011.  Currently we are planning our racing season but we have some exciting races on tap:

1.  Melbourne & Beaches Music Marathon, 1/2 Marathon
2.  Wildman Triathlon
3.  St. Anthony's Triathlon
4.  Pineapple Man Triathlon
5.  The Nation's Triathlon
6.  MiamiMan Half Iron and Olympic Triathlon

This list is by no means all inclusive.  As a team we are still defining our goals for the next year.  We are definitely going to add some new events - long distance open water swims, century rides and the Warrior Dash.  It is going to be a crazy ride.  If you would like to join us, COME ON!  :-)

I am continuing to coach Team in Training and on that front, I had a great St Anthony's / TriMiami season and an equally awesome Nation's Triathlon season.  We had a 100% success rate of completers at all three races.  How awesome is that.  This was my first year as a coach for The Nation's Triathlon.  What an amazing event.  I had the best time with my team in DC.  As I mentioned above, this race is already on the list for my YMCA team and of course for TNT in 2011.  Depending on my coaching schedule, I would love to race this race one day.  I am currently coaching the 2011 St. Anthony's Triathlon team we are 22 strong and charging towards our goals.  I am also working with our local chapter to create a 70.3 team.  Our goal is Ironman 70.3 Augusta.  I will keep you posted.

I was interviewed for a local magazine and an article was published about triathlons and me.  :-)  Here is a link if you want to take a second to read: Triathlons: Do you have what it takes?  I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed taking part in the creation of the article.

My daughters both tested for the next level of their black belts and have joined the leadership team at their school.  I am so proud of them and I will post more on their exploits and accomplishments in a different blog because I am a proud mom and there is way to much to tell.

Well that is it for this post.  I have much more to write so talk to you again soon!

XOXOX,
E