I’ve been a bit MIA for the past two weeks.  And with good reason. 

You see….I was doing a different type of training.  I was training my brain!  Last week on July 15th I took the National Counselors Exam, which would allow me to get my license here in Colorado. 

"just one more hour"

This meant for the past 6 weeks, I have been working, Ironman training AND studying!  I had no time for anything else.  Those three things took all of my awake time hours.  ( and even some sleep hours).  And as the exam date got closer I tended to spend more time studying.

The week of the exam my coach was kind enough to plan for a big recovery week for me.  I actually had 3 days off  during the week  including the day of the test.  I have not crammed so hard since way back in the day!  (No more all nighters this time though).

So it’s with much pleasure and relief that I can announce that I PASSED the exam!!!!!

The exam is behind me…never a need to take it again!  Hallelujah !  It’s back to Ironman training and having a social life!    And did I mention that the Saturday after the exam, and after my workouts…I spent the entire afternoon, lying on my couch, watching shows on Hulu…..and I enjoyed ever minute of it!

Yesterday was Bike To Work Day here in Denver.  Actually every Wednsday is bike to work day for me.  And yesterday was even better due to the majority of Denver biking to work.

My friend Angela is a teacher so has the summer off, and I invited her to bike to work with me since she had no work to bike to.  She lives close by and came to my house at 6:30am and we headed off toward City Park .  The weather was perfect and the sky was clear blue and crisp.

I ride to work every week on Wednesdays but yesterday was particularly great because the roads were packed with cyclists!  The best part about the morning was heading down to Confluence Park at REI and hanging out at the expo and getting a bunch of shwag! There had to be well over a hundred cyclists there!

We jumped on Cherry Creek Bike Path and made our way up onto 12th Ave. From there it was a easy pedal to my office near City Park.  Angela said goodbye and continued in search of other events going on that morning.

The ride home in the evening was just a stellar. When I hit Cherry Creek Bike Path I was just overwhelmed with the joy of seeing so many people biking and on their way home.  I was struck by the thought of “I wish it was like this every day!”.  I wish we were a city that rode to work every day in those numbers.  Just think how cool that would be…and green 

I thourohgly enjoyed taking part in the official “Bike to Work Day” and will continue my weekly rides….the roads will just be a little less full of cyclists.

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Have I ever mentioned how much I love my job?  Strange heh, to read that on someone’s blog who isn’t a professional triathlete.  Yet it’s true.

I feel so blessed to do the work I do, AND to do it with the people I get to work with day in and day out!

I work for the Mental Health Center of Denver and we serve people with severe and persistent mental illness.  At MHCD our mission statement is “Enriching Lives and Minds by Focusing on Strengths and Recovery”.   And that truly is what we do…we focus on our consumers strengths and the employees strengths. I have never worked anywhere in my life where I have felt one tenth as much support as I feel here at MHCD.

I not only work for a great agency but I work with the best people on the planet!  Each employee is passionate about helping the consumers and helping each other!  The support and care that everyone I work with exhibits for each other is incredible.  MHCD is based on a Wellness Culture and I see this day in and day out…..

I shared a few months ago about a training I went to called Pathways To Leadership.  This past week we had a two day Mastery Session which proved to be beyond incredible.  I thought I’d just put up a few photos and video to share all the fun we had….

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L46STd11w4

This is just a sampling of what a supportive, foward focused, strenghts based group of people I get to spend 40 hours a week of my life with.   I wouldn’t change what I get to do for work for anything….ok…maybe to become a full time triathlete………

Now how amazing is it to live in a place where it’s 20 degress on Tues and 60 on Friday. Ya gotta love it.
Spent my lunch hour today going for a 6 mile endurance run. Went to Washington Park and hit the trail. It was a glorious day. Truely amazing to be running in shorts and a t-shit in the middle of winter (?)…..
The run started off pretty ruff. Took about 3 miles to warm up- as in my bones and muscles….
After that I felt great. I felt like my running form has changed a bit….maybe that because I had plenty of time to be aware of it during my marathon.
There were so many people out today during lunch. People running, walking dogs, walking w/stollers. People where playing tennis and feeding the geese. It was glorious! I love living in Denver. It just doesn’t get better than this….but that’s just my opinion.
One thing I noticed was my knees were a touch sore after the run…not an injured sore- more a use sore and I attribute that to running downhill for 18+ miles during the marathon….
Anyway-what a great way to spend lunch today! Sure beat eating in front of my computer doing work
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/1987113