So I’ve been busy living, hence the lack of writing…

Over the past 2 weeks, my life has been a bit of a whirlwind. Some good, some bad, but let’s focus on the good shall we?

First, and most important, I had the opportunity to volunteer at the CNY Food Bank last week. This opportunity also included volunteering a few of my coworkers in the process… (a big thank you to my coworkers for helping out with me!). I first was exposed to the Food Bank system in November as part of my LEAD NY experience. I’ve heard both worldwide and American hunger statistics over the years, and had helped with food drives and fundraisers in the past, but I felt like my LEAD program helped to open my eyes to some additional ways to help out right in my own community.

As an overview, the CNY Food Bank serves and 11 county region to help provide food to various food pantries, food shelters, and other food emergency outlets. One in Six Americans struggle with hunger. Of the resources supplied through the CNY Food Bank, 37% is provided to children under the age of 18. It is clear that the food bank provides food resources for those in need, but in addition to being a food resource, the CNY Food Bank provides nutrition education, to educate on healthy eating habits and food preparation. Additionally, I was impressed to learn that the CNY Food Bank will not supply soda and other ‘junk’ foods. Finally, we learned about their sourcing programs from supermarkets, food drives, food processors (we learned that Chobani is a big source of yogurt for their supplies), and the many local farms in CNY that provide excess produce.

After learning about the food bank and their programs, our crew got to work boxing up bread (15 lbs. per box), water (25 lbs.) and juice (30 lbs.) before helping out with some of the snack items (granola bars, etc.). We were able to work through all of the hand packaging that the warehouse had for the morning in a few hours! Overall, it was an educational day, and it felt good to help out the community.

As for the rest of the week… There was working out, but at a lesser level since it was a recovery week for my workouts. We did some Heart Rate (HR) Testing on the bike, and I completed a Time Trial (TT) in the pool.

The bike HR Test was pretty intense, but I was happy to finally get some HR Zones set up for my training this year. Last year when I did my HR Test, my HR monitor didn’t record… so I just trained sans HR Zones – which many will tell you is a big mistake, especially for endurance sports – so I’m excited to compare and contrast my training with HR Zones this year v. my training without them last year!

Now, as far at the swim TT, I’m pretty sure that in the world of swimming, I am the tortoise. First of all, I’ve refused to incorporate flip turns into my swimming due to the lack of pool walls to kick off from in an open water swim, and second, I’ve just never pushed myself that hard in the pool. Maybe this year will be a bit different, but the swim goal for the 70.3 (actually for all my triathlons) is to survive the swim and kick butt on the bike and run. —> Yes, I know, I should work to strengthen my weaknesses. To clarify, I do try to get faster and to push myself in the pool, but I also try to keep things balanced and not to stress about it too much.

As far as the rest of the week, I had a conference for work and hung out with some friends. I had a fantastic dinner at Asti’s (my favorite restaurant in Syracuse), and worked to enjoy a few of the simpler joys in life… such as:

Tulips purchased to brighten up what has been a long and cold winter here in CNY…

Creating something new for the world – my little origami elephant – Meet Edwin! 

Dogs that sometimes can actually get along… or at least tolerate each other when they’re tired!

AND visits from puppies!! (3 Dogs in 1 house = crazy town!)

And of course… SU v. Duke – I went to my friend M’s House for a party to watch the game and cheer on SU – including having a mini heart attack as Duke tied the score at the buzzer forcing the game into OT!