I've had to be away a long time because I was brought down by a bothersome cold. It didn't make sense for me to blog every day or even every week that I was still sick.

I think that the cold had a resurgence just when I was about to recover. Now, I think I'm finally ready to start getting back at things again. For these past many weeks I've been doing my best to still get to bed around 9:00PM. But, instead of getting up at 5AM, I've been getting up at 7AM to give my body that bit of extra rest and recovery.

Tomorrow is Monday. My plan is to get to bed tonight by 9:00PM and get up tomorrow morning at 5AM. Since the actual start of the 30-week program is not until January, I think that I'm going to focus on improving my swimming technique and doing strength training over the next weeks. I think that I will still through in a small amount of easy run and bike workouts. Yes, the start of the program is now January 2014. When I looked through the schedule again I realized that setting the Boulder 70.3 as the culminating race didn't align well with the race schedule for this part of the country. So, now I've placed it in the slot that corresponds to the warm up race for the culminating race. I'm still not planning to do a full IM distance this season, though. I've got to decide what I do want to schedule for the culminating race, which will fall on August 10.

I'm so thankful that this illness struck when it did. Without a doubt it couldn't have occurred at a better time (as if there is any good time to be sick). I'll do my best to use it as a heads up to keep on eating, sleeping and training smart. I'd like to reestablish my normal wellness level of going years without even getting so much as a sore throat.

I give thanks to the Universe for the abundance it provides me. I surrender and am open and ready to receive.

Bhavatu, sabba, mangalam -- May all beings be happy.