On track.

The sun is shining today and I'm feeling good.

I went out to happy hour last night with a good friend and as we sat there, catching up on life, she drinking a cranberry juice and I a pallegringo (big boozers, aren't we!), I realized that balance has settled back into my life. Thank God!

Going from constant travel in October and high excitement of the world cups to being quietly back at home in the middle of winter was a big shift in paradigm. And as I've mentioned, my off season started right after the holidays. Suddenly I found myself going from fit, fit, fit to bored, bored, bored. What do you mean I have all this spare time? And why do I suddenly have all this energy and have a burning desire to do a million house projects?

Hi, my name is Jennifer and I am a recovering exercise-aholic.

About the time I was ready to pull my eyeballs out, move cities, become a monk, paint the entire interior of my house, write a book, join a cult and various other odd jobs, my month of rest was over and it was time to get back in the saddle and get my heart rate up on a regular basis.

What a relief.

But oddly, the relief didn't come right away.

Wait, what?!?

Yep. Although I could start riding again and pumping some serious iron at the gym, now I was faced with the harsh reality of being out of shape. Or as one nice teammate put it, "out of form." Gotta love that positive spin on things.

And getting back into some sort of routine of punishing your body is difficult. Reestablishing patterns and body movements, especially when first starting out, takes will power and at times just plain sucks.

Is this startling? You mean, an exercise-aholic even has trouble getting back in the groove? Yes, but don't worry, that feeling didn't last long. Two weeks, tops.

A meager two weeks is all it took before I was ready to tackle bigger rides, higher heart rates and let's face it, a big reason why I pedal my heart out - more food. Not to mention I am fueled by watching the Manchester World Cup coverage happening as we speak. The OUCH Pro Cycling women's team pursuit just raced and won the bronze medal ride. And Great Britain rode well for gold, falling short of the world record by two tenths of a second. Riveting!

I also had a well timed conversation with my friend Jo. Actually, we made a pact. She's itching to move back to her native homeland this year and I am narrowing my athletic focus. We shook on it and everything, so you know we mean business.

All of that to say, things are on track for me. When there's balance, good things happen, planets align, immortal superhero powers recharge and that tailwind at your back feeling remains constant. Yesssssss!!!!!