Races will be here before we know it!

I just realized today that we are almost halfway through January. February is a short month and spring starts to show its face in March. April, the month of the season's first tri, is going to be here before I can blink. But, I'm not worried - I feel like I'm in better shape now than I was at this time last year. I feel more focused, I'm making an effort to go to bed early, get at least one workout in before work, eat better, and really pay attention to my workouts, not just go through the motions. I've been (slowly) reading a book on mental strength (you know, the book my dog ate once and attempted to eat again). One of the goals I set with Jen this year is to pick a mental strength exercise to focus on each week during my workouts and send Jen a write-up of my thoughts at the end of the week. I've not been great about keeping up with that resolution, but I'm working on it. After the disasters at France and Wisconsin, I realize what a big component mental fortitude is in a successful race.

Veganism has been going just fine - I don't miss the milk, eggs and butter much at all and I feel really healthy. This weekend we made an awesome pizza with kale, sweet potatoes, mushrooms and leeks - it was so tasty, I didn't miss the cheese at all. I made vegan chocolate cupcakes with homemade peanut butter frosting - Mark liked them more than the cookies so it was a success. Last night we made some veggie burgers using kidney beans, carrots, almonds, leeks, breadcrumbs, and onions with a little homemade marinara, and topped with sauteed onions and mushrooms. And over the weekend we made veggie "fondue" - instead of cheese we sauteed cauliflower with coconut milk, with some nutmeg, salt and pepper and used a hand blender to mix it.