2015-2016.

Well. I don’t know where to start, it’s been so long.

2015: moved to CO. Bought a house less than a month later (originally unplanned). Did Pikes Peak marathon. Started school a couple weeks later. Fall semester KICKED MY ASS. Didn’t work out. Got fat (ok, how do I strike through here? Oh! Found it.) unhealthy.

Last January I blogged my 2015 “goals”. I didn’t even come close to 365 days of working out. I don’t even know when I quit that, but it was pretty early. Then:
Other goals:
knit at least 5 projects (making my way through my neglected project box)
read 10 books
3-5 new marathon states (Booked: South Dakota, the rest…up in the air)

Reality:
Knitting: 2 projects. I call that pretty decent considering I hadn’t knitted anything since Dec. 14.
Books: more than 17! I have 17 saved on my Goodreads acct, and I know I forgot to put in several. Between driving across the country (Texas) several times to/from CO, I listened to some great audio books as well.
Marathons: 3 (all new states). Whew, just under the wire here. I had planned on 2 more, but new house/K’s work travel cancelled those. I couldn’t leave in the middle of the move (that I mostly did on my own). That’s ok, life things that are more important than races and I’m totally fine with it.

Food/weight/fitness. I fit all the food in my mouth. Gained a bunch of weight. (UGH. Mad at myself but really trying hard to not beat myself up) I know how to fix it. The fall semester was horrible for these things as well. Workouts were very sporadic, until Dec break, I hadn’t been to a CF class since Oct/early Nov. NOT GOOD for my physical and mental being. I was not a happy person. That’s ok….again, other things were more important, but I really suffered.

I did get a 4.0. Whoo! Whew. That will really help later.

So, what else? 2016? This is a HUGE question mark. I’ve feel like I’ve been treading water/flailing for 2 years now. Since the end of 2013 (end of my first 365), I had “finished” losing weight, and finished the 100miler. I don’t do well without goals, purpose, or vision. Being unstable in where we were going to move, not having fitness goals…just doesn’t work for me. So, I guess the good news is I have something to work towards: getting healthy. Again. (Ugh. Why is this a pattern?)

Health/weight: 365 days of doing something active! 2 Whole30’s. ‘Easy’ to tackle with my routine. Just takes time.  I hope I can do this no matter what. I’d love to do 4 again this year, but I don’t know if that is feasible, (more on that below) so, 2 is a reasonable expectation.

Running: not too sure. Depends on the year. If things don’t change, I’ll get a couple more states this year. Not sure which ones. If they do, I suspect I’ll actually get more running in.

Challenges: There are several big unknowns/events on the horizon that may or may not happen. If they do, it’ll be big changes. If they don’t, then things continue on mostly the same, which is good too. Routine is good for me and I know I can focus on getting my ass into shape, no matter what happens. This possible change would be huge, and amazing, but I’d really be denying myself if I didn’t enjoy the full experience. We’ll see.
Others:
House projects. We have a 3 page running list and have stalled on some things as they snowball. For example: “lets redo the floors!” Great. No problem. Well, now I hate the fireplace (with a PASSION) and it’s not staying. (Fireplace Dr. appt next week! One step.) So, can’t redo the floor before we do the fireplace. Need a new storage cabinet/island in the kitchen, but should get a new stove first…And on. And on. This will also be easier when I’m working again. So, maybe 1 big project and a couple smaller ones are a reasonable goal.
Reading: I exceeded my goal and don’t anticipate this falling to the wayside. Our library is EXCELLENT and it’s much easier now that it used to be. (LA libraries & education system are awful) So, no set reading goal.
Knitting: 2-3 projects. I feel this is more reasonable.

BLOGGING. I need to keep this blog up. 1 post per week, minimum. Should be reasonable as well. I do well holding myself accountable when I write it down, and it’s “out there” for the world. If my life changes happen, I suspect this will be far more frequent to keep it documented.

Side note: so many people are against resolutions. Sure, it sucks when you fail, but making a conscious effort to change, or work on something, usually leads to good things. “Losing weight” “eat healthy”, those things don’t usually get people anywhere. Specific goals, usually do.
What am I doing to keep up my goals?
1. this blog
2. getting strict with my food again. I know I”m not a moderation person, I shouldn’t try to be.
3. Fitness/goal journal. This is new, but I hope that seeing it on my table every day will keep me accountable. I can ignore the computer and this blog. Harder to ignore the physical book.

Update (post day): I wrote this 5 days ago and never hit ‘publish.’ Oops.

I doubt anyone read all of this, but if you did, I leave you with this.
Apparently, one can’t leave boxes, and boxes, of LaCroix and Pelligrino in the garage when living in Colorado. I pretty much blame my Yankee husband for this as he pointed out we have tons of shelving storage in there AND he should have known that they would have turned into frozen projectiles, as he is from the frozen tundra of Ohio and I am from the south (and have never lived somewhere this cold). Thankfully only the garage lights were broken, and not the windows in my car. Whooops. That was a terrible mess to clean up!

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Nothing like trying to clean frozen, exploded, water.

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Super sad face.

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Where I’m at

Gosh, I’m really kicking myself for abandoning WP for so long! I’ve missed it here. I’ve enjoyed catching up with my Reader this week.
Day 289-290 (Oct. 16 & 17): easy walking. Not feeling great (sore throat & a slight cold) and making sure my ankle is healing.
Day 291 (today): some KB, couple pullups, light weights & walking (at packet pickup in Indy)

So, where am I at? I’ve been exploring what I really love, realizing things I miss and what I may want to focus on for next year:

  • I’m considering doing 365 again for next year! There’s always room to grow and change. I was trying to decide what direction to take this blog and/or my life after this year of great changes, and well, I don’t want to stop. If I stop 365, where does that take my blog title? Easy solution: do it again since it hasn’t been a burden.
  • Physically: I’m in Ohio, away from my partner. (And yes, I usually use ‘partner’ instead of ‘husband’.  We each hold each other with a high level of respect, and room to each be our own person. While I do believe he possesses many great qualities I do not, I don’t like the term ‘better half’. I don’t sell myself short! I bring many things to our partnership. We each have our own athletic and life pursuits, different hobbies. The most important thing: by being secure in MYSELF, I respect his choices and don’t ‘need’ him to be happy with myself. He enhances my life, the one I make for myself. But gosh, I do miss him.)...Many twisted things fell into place (or fell out of place) and I ended up here, practically in the frozen tundra of Canada (I like to live south of the Mason-Dixon unless I’m in the mountains or the NE), and he is living next door to my family eating things like deer stew and crab stuffed flounder. Twisted and cruel I tell you! I get to go back in Dec, and we don’t plan on doing a geo-bachelor situation again. Life is too short, and while 3-4mo isn’t that long and we have seen each other, it’s not cool.


That’s my driveway. Good luck finding it.

  • Running: I’ve logged more miles, and more races, this year than ever before. Still not a ton of training miles, but I’ve registered and done almost every marathon or ultra I could this year. I surpassed last years running mileage in Aug or Sept. Pretty awesome.
  • CrossFit: I don’t have access to a CF gym here in Ohio. The closest ones are an hour away. SUCKS. Since I’m traveling or doing races almost every weekend, I do not want to drive to the Box a couple times during the week. The week is downtime and catching up on school time. Definitely something I miss and will fiercely start up when I get back to LA! I have a real pullup bar, a small amount of weights, a KB and plenty of room to run. Fitness can happen anywhere!
  • Friends: doing so many races has made me closer to a lot of my running friends, and I’ve met some great new ones. Being here away from him has given me time and a vigor to see people I haven’t seen in years! I’ve seen my best friend more in these 2 months than the last 4 years. Race pain and suffering can help you find your new best Race Friend. Or, even better, when you can click off 26miles with someone you met the day before and talk the whole way! St. Louis marathon 2 weeks ago was just that, and even better, a solid 4:53 marathon the week after a TOUGH 50k. That was done at a very comfortable effort and 20min faster than what we were expecting. So awesome that our brains turned off what we thought we were going to do, and look what happened. It was only 9min slower than my fastest race of the year, with just a month & 2 50k’s in between.
    Denis and I ran the whole way together, and it was great! Oh, stories that come out after 4hrs of sharing pain.

Have a great weekend! I hope my first “Double” goes well. That’s 2 marathons. In 2 different states. Forecast is 38-55 degrees tomorrow morning…with rain. Yuck! Ciao!