Hello, January!

See, I told you I'd be back. It's as if I'm standing before you...standing before this new month...with my arms outstretched, completely ready for whatever lies ahead of me. I'm excited. I'm present. And I'm shouting this out loud:

Can you hear me? I hope so. A little softer, I'll add: "Hello, you!"

Thank you for reading, thank you for following, and thank you for inspiring me. I certainly need it right now. I spent much of November and December like this:

Sick in bed with various forms of the flu (I'll spare you the details). And when you're pregnant, there isn't much you can do in terms of medication, so I just dealt with it. And this, unfortunately, meant that I couldn't hit the workouts like I truly wanted to. My body needed rest. A lot of it.

Needless to say, it's not exactly how I envisioned the end of my 2013.
But yesterday, oh yesterday I got a head start on 2014.

The bump and I got back in the saddle after almost three weeks of not teaching. It felt so good to ride again. We did a mix of intervals: Flats followed by standing climbs followed by some sprints at the end of those climbs. Of course, I pulled back my own intensity in the sprints. Man, that bike sends my heart rate soaring! I'm used to pushing it, but with Baby on board I have to be a bit more careful about that. The old standard recommends a heart rate around 130 for exercising mamas, but I think that research has since been proven wrong. Which is good for me because 130 barely makes me break a sweat. In all my workouts, I push to a point that works for me right now. This was especially the case yesterday as it was my first workout back after being so sick.

But, anyway. It's 2014!

This month, I'm looking forward to:

• A fresh start in good health.
• New beginnings at the gym.
• Seeing Baby in a second ultrasound.
• Celebrating Hannah's birthday.
• Blogging regularly again.

Question: What are you looking forward to in January?