Heidi's Dream Land

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to take some well deserved time off from the triathlon world and escape to to Salt Lake City. Although I wrecked my pelvis there a few years ago snowboarding, I have come to fall in love with Utah. It's definitely one of my favorite places in the world to visit. Given my stellar history, I made sure to book my trip after the NOLA 70.3 :)

I know most of my fellow northerners are sick of the white stuff, but I was happy to escape the humid swamp lands for a bit and enjoy some "freshies". I was surprised as to how much powder was left and how incredible the conditions were.

View from the top of Snowbird

Making fresh tracks out of bounds

After a full day of shredding, my sister and I did a 2 hour hike up the Bonneville Shoreline trail. Talk about a double whammy. I was panting like a dog at the top of this climb.

The views from the top were well worth the hike

It felt so refreshing to try something outside of the swim-bike-run routine! I love love love hiking. Besides boarding and hiking, I did do a little running to prevent losing my base. Running out there was just as nuts and the altitude and climbing were insane. I think I gained almost a 1,000 feet in elevation on an hour run. So much for recovering from the 70.3 :)

As for me, I'm back in NOLA. For now I'm trading my fresh snow and breath taking mountain top views for 90% humidity, mosquitos galore, and a lovely view of the Mississippi.

Changes

I know I've been quite absent over the last week in the blogging world....I've been dealing with some clinical problems. The good news is that I've made the appropriate changes and hope that things will get better over the next couple months. More to come on that later.

But I've made some other changes:
Most of you have already seen... I was SOOO over having the same look for the past 5 years and decided to do some chopping! And I want to wear cute pigtails when I race like Julia :)

On the training front, NOLA 70.3 and Mardi Gras Half training begins next week. I've started to get a few more workouts in here in there ~working my swim back up to 3000m and running up to 10 miles. Before I buckle down officially, I'm hoping to squeeze in some off season snowboarding, drink lots more wine, catch up with Pennsylvania friends, and to do a few Cathedral Climbs at the University of Pittsburgh.

Who ever thought climbing stairs would be so fun? Anyway Heidi is "burgh" bound again. Yay for a white Christmas!

Back in the Big Easy

It's been awhile my friends as I predicted it would be. I made it out of finals week alive and am back home in the lovely Big Easy with Scott. Although finals were officially over last Thursday, I spent the weekend in Pittsburgh celebrating an early Christmas with my sister and mom. My mom takes her celebrating and family time seriously if you know what I mean and acts as if she's running on 3-red bulls 24-7. In other words, Thursday through Sunday were jam packed with with snowboarding, pedicures, Christmas cookie baking, shopping, hot-tubbing, egg-nog drinking, Steeler games, pre-gaming of course, and oh can't forget my ever-so important workouts! Hence-no blogging until today.....

While some may be surprised, last Friday I took a big step: I went snowboarding again for the first time since my accident! Some may think this is silly or even dumb, but snowboarding is a huge part of my life and always has been. There is something magical about gliding down a glittery,white mountain making fresh tracks with the wind blowing through your hair. It sounds cheesy I know, but snowboarding offers something to me that triathlon doesn't. It sets me free. After all life is about balance isn't it? I do love triathlon don't get me wrong, but traversing down an untouched mountain is an awe inspiring experience that I wouldn't trade for the world.....Merry Christmas everyone hope it's a good one :)