Back With Team Nuun!

NUUNLIFE!!! STAYHYDRATED!!!

Just got more great news this week! Another year as a Team Nuun Ambassador as well! Awesome! The Team Nuun community is one of the most connected ambassador programs out there for your average endurance athlete. It all starts with some great work by our fearless leader Brian Fisher! He links everyone up, gets us amped and keeps us engaged throughout the year!

Nuun Ambassadors also share often on the private FB page which helps show you what other normal people are doing around the country and even how some of them are conquering various challenges around the world! It really is a great community!

And of course there's tons of swag and discounted product too! I was even lucky enough to get into one of the special Nuun sponsored events! In fact, probably my greatest athletic feat of last year was being part of the Team Nuun Ragnar SoCal team! We participated and DOMINATED the mixed (aka coed) division and took home 1st place honors! It was such an awesome experience meeting like minded athletes and just competing and talking to fellow runners about Nuun. The 1st place medal is still the only one in my collection and one that I definitely am stoked about and cherish big time!!!

And just a quick blurb about how I use Nuun. Nuun has a couple categories of products and are also releasing a new one this year! The original Nuun Active is for general use to stay hydrated all day, during workouts and also races. Nuun Energy is a caffeinated version that's primed for athletes during workouts and races looking for the extra boost. Nuun Plus is a carb enhancement that can be added to help get carbs in addition to electrolytes. And the new product is Nuun Vitamins which is primed for every day use while the athlete is at rest. My favorite uses are to pair Nuun Active and Nuun Plus for training and races depending on the duration and intensity!

2016 Year In Review

Life can't always go your way... 2015 was THE YEAR for me!!! So many new and great things happened in my life that changed my life for the better. I couldn't have asked for more, but somehow I had hoped for it. I hoped for PRs, as many race finishes (if not more) and all kinds of milestones! Instead, life hit me with challenges, tribulations and a journey to remind me that it ain't easy...

The year started off with injury coinciding with the first Ironman finish hangover. Then pre-maturely racing a handful of races with the minor injury only perpetuated the problem (in addition to not being ready for some of the races). As the year went on, work only got more time consuming while training was supposed to pick up. By the time I completed IM 70.3 Hawaii, it was a steady downward trend from there. The China travel picked up and I reached my 90 day limit by August. 12 hour days turned into 16 hour days and many sleepless nights. I somehow went on to do IM 70.3 Vineman and the SF 1st half marathon. Work really hit hard in the next few months just barely easing up after Halloween. By then the Honolulu Marathon was basically upon me, with the holidays just around the corner. The whole combination meant I wasn't ready for a race I was determined to do... And I paid the price...

I sit here writing with pains in both feet, pain above my right knee and reviewing race results from a failed 2016 year. This was supposed to be the year I realized my potential... The year I hoped to podium at least once... The year I would leverage my recent Ironman finish and catapult to better triathlon performance! Instead, I sit reflecting on pain, failure and what went wrong. So to that, I say:

(Photo credit: http://diycandy.com/2016/12/new-years-printables-bye-felicia/)

In fact, 2016 was so devastating that I have all of 2 races lined up: Redondo Beach Sprint Triathlon and IM 70.3 NOLA. The former is my annual race which is a tribute and reminder of my very first entry into this sport. The latter is my destination race for 2017! But otherwise, there's nothing on the calendar... at all. I think I will use the beginning of the year to shore up my base fitness and reflect on where I am and where I want to go. That's just how devastating 2016 has been to me...

If there's any good advice for 2017, it might just be:

(Photo credit: http://www.keepcalmandcarryon.com)

Back With The Hive!

STING OR BEE STUNG!!!

So glad to get another year with The Hive! Being part of the Honey Stinger Ambassador program has been a wonderful experience! The premium benefit for any athlete is the very generous discount that you receive on all Honey Stinger products! I use the chews, gels and waffles so much that it's a huge benefit. Additionally, they have gear that supports a lot of endurance sports (triathlons, running, cycling) that receives the same discount. So gear shopping typically happens on the Logo Store rather than at my local sporting good store.

But the real benefit is the HS Hive community. You can connect with other Hive members who are all very passionate about the product AND their sport(s). Honey Stinger reps and ambassadors are at many races and you can likely catch them at the expo booth for your local race too. And everyone is great and friendly and it's such a good community.

And I've been lucky enough to have multiple friends apply and get accepted. So we get to continue to dub ourselves as the Honey Stinger Picnic Family! We got the name due to our love of Honey Stingers and our early foray into triathlons which often resulted in seated consumption of the waffles in a nervous wreck to get calories down! lol Oh the knowledge we have gained since those early days! These people are my pulse, my heart and soul to keep going in the darkest of times during the many stages of training and racing endurance sports. I definitely would not be here or have been going this long without them!