Christmas Gear

Thanks to the wife, I now have this little contraption!

Sea-to-Summit Kayak Cart

It's a Sea-to-Summit kayak cart which I can now use to haul my kayak to the water. 

My 54lb. Kayak

Carolina 14.0 Airalite

Previously, I used brute force strength to haul this 54lb. kayak around. Fortunately, I don't kayak all that often because this kayak has tried to kill me on several occasions. Most of the issues I had before was lifting the freaking kayak up on top of my SUV to my Yakima rails which behaved like "ice" to the bottom of the boat. Until the Winter Challenge(WC), I've only had to haul the boat about 10-15ft. to the waters edge. At the WC in 2009, I had to lug the boat about 1/4 of a mile to the lake. This SUCKED. I vowed never to do it again. Now I don't have to. I can't wait to use this.

Winter Training

Training. Let's be honest. Who really likes training? Me, kind of. It's a love-hate relationship. I love the results of training, but when it comes to motivating myself to get up early, go out in the rain, or add another layer because it's cold outside, well, that's hard. This time of year really tests your motivation. My motivation went on vacation. I started this post before the Christmas holiday and I basically ignored all of my training plans (the ones that are in my head). I'm ok with that. I worked hard in 2011 and i enjoyed the break I gave myself, but now its probably time to get serious. Serious sounds too serious, let's get motivated....that's better. The next challenge I've decided to take on is the Winter Challenge. It's described as 23 miles of racing bliss. OK, sure. It's an off road triathlon. The format is Run-Kayak-Bike. No swimming. :-) This is a perfect format for me because it involves elements of an adventure race and is in disciplines I can generally do pretty well. For an off road triathlon, this race delivers. 7 mile run, 6 mile kayak, and 10 mile bike. I did this race in 2009 and loved every minute of it. I've been really excited to return to this race. Next up..my plan for Feb. 11 and the Winter Challenge.

Let's Roll

This is the first blog post to get things started. Firstly, I'm not sure what the real purpose of this blog is (yet). I've started down this path before only to become frustrated in the lack of purpose. I still don't have a real purpose, but that's what's different this time. If I don't set any expectations, then it has to be fun. Fun for me, that is. Whether anyone else finds this interesting, well, time will tell.