Welcome Back...

To me!  Team, I have missed you all dearly.  I was inspired today to update the look of our blog after providing access to Iva (who has not yet accepted my invite!).  Nonetheless, let me know what you think of this look.  I took it back to a more simplified look just to start fresh and clean.

As you have all surmised from my many Facebook posts, I have not been able to do much with this blog, but I will try and stay on top of it as much as possible.  Those of you that were on the team last year know that when I'm running at an optimal pace, I do try to keep this blog active and fluid.

Last year's team was small, but definitely united, staying true to our team name: United Mudders.  My hope is that this year we will have a similar commitment and bond among the team members.  It will be difficult for us, considering that we have grown substantially since last year.  This puts a great emphasis on this blog as a point of contact.  A place to connect.  A place to stay motivated.  A place to share.

I will cut myself off here, as it is late and I need to hit the sack, but some expected posts in the next few days, weeks, months:

• Full author access rights will be provided to all team members by default.  As team members I hope that we all share and communicate with each other on here in an effort to keep in touch.  We are quite scattered this year, but hopefully this blog defeats our geographical distances and keeps us connected and current.  More detailed team member stats are forthcoming but I definitely have quite a few individuals to add.
• Full author access rights will be provided to any non-team members who are either spectators or request access otherwise.  This is a public blog which allows anyone who stumbles upon it to read the posts, but it is member specific where only the member-authors can post or comment.  Therefore, if someone wants to become a member, I will presume that means that they are truly interested in posting on the blog.  I look forward to any non-team member posts that will contribute to our common goal.
• More conversation around our first organized full (or as full as possible) team training.  To this end, I have started a poll in the right side bar requesting general thoughts on weekends that are BAD.  If we can trim those out we can then talk about which remaining ones work best.  To be continued.
• Posts/conversations/ideas around team apparel for the event.
• Training schedules and tips.  I personally have a calendar I use that can be customized to our individual team goals which you are free to use or not use, but I will share with you anyway.  We can discuss training planning tips on here of course.  It's all about planning your training and nutrition...
• Travel plans up to Tampa and coordinating among us.
• Stories: What's good?  What's bad?  What's painful, yet sweet.  All of us last year would post videos, pictures, links, etc. to generate conversation and discussion among team members.  However, I did notice there were a good amount of posts where this blog was more like a journal.  Someone logging their personal story just to put it down on paper (er, screen).  Those are always great posts.

That's it for now.  Geezus, I thought I was cutting myself off.

Nite.