6footsix

thankyou!!!

To my friends, family and generous contributors.

Thank you all for your support for my green team throughout 2008.  It is a new year and I have new goals driving me to the top of the beach volleyball tour and new challenges for my readers to better green their lives.

My "serious" training has started back up in the volleyball world.  I am now training 5-7 times a week with 2 off days so that my body can recover and be refreshed for the next workout.  My workouts consist of 3-5 workouts on the beach doing drills or playing against other athletes and 1-2 workouts in the gym.  During the last 3 months of 2008, I was spending 4-5 days in the gym doing speed training, joint stability, ambidexterity training, strength workouts and core strengthening, building a base for the rigorous training that started at the new year.  I got an unexpected morning off today due to rain, so I will get an extra core workout in.  Heaven forbid I take an extra day off!

I am already seeing huge improvements in my quickness on the court.  It is not easy to get 80 inches of leg up under me to hit a ball after diving and digging it out of the sand, but this is so much easier for me than it was last season thanks to my strength trainer and sponsor, Justin Frandson of Athleticism.  Through my multi-aspect training at Athleticism, my body is so much more prepared for the season as it has ever been.  I am stronger, more athletic, quicker, and am using both sides of my body to maximize my performance.  In addition to the physical training, Justin and others in his circle have taught me a new way of thinking and approaching my game mentally; a way that puts my mind solely in the present and places errors in a category of my brain that views them as positive learning experiences instead of mistakes to dwell on and effect my current experience.  A new, more confident Colleen is forming and I am very excited to tackle the 2009 season. 

Daisy Mae and Zula have been training too and asked to wish you all a Happy New Year.  They are staying warm throughout the winter in the parkas they got for Christmas and are very excited about the country's current events and ask you all to wag more and bark less!   

More green challenges are coming as well as volleyball updates so stay tuned.

Happy New Year!

we have parkas!

daisy mae and i are really excited that we got parkas for christmas.  funny thing is, mom tried to make them for us first out of socks!  when we were puppies, we visited our grandma in the mountains of new mexico.  mom made really warm sweaters for us out of socks and it worked because we were so small.  she tried to do it again this year but it was not quite the success it was when we were small. 

 

here i am modeling mom's creation.

thank goodness for petsmart

the colors of nature

Have you ever taken the time to appreciate how beautiful the colors of nature are? There is so much subtlety and the contrast with the colors of  things people make can be jarring. Take a walk today and see what I mean! 

and there are the trees....

so beautiful!

You can get on your back and just gaze up for the longest time. Colors, sounds, motion .. Squirrels run around and birds work on their nests. You feel small, but also part of it and that is beautiful.