2016 Goals

Remember when I mentioned that if I get overwhelmed I tend to just stick my head in the ground and quit sharing back when I talked about my One Word for 2016 (Grow)? Yeahhhhh, well, consider that as being the case these days. I had grand plans for being on top of 2016 and those are all still there, they just kind of got pushed to the back burner while I got my head knocked around by reality for a little bit. But here's the thing, especially as I start talking about my 2016 goals - just because you didn't meet a goal, doesn't mean you should throw it out the window. It just means you need to re-evaluate, adjust where needed, and get back to it. So with that, let's talk goals for a moment.

First, I am going to be quick to admit that I'm pretty good about setting goals. Working towards them? That's a whole other issue. hahaha I can set them, I can apply SMART goal setting techniques, I can come up with plans for meeting them but in the end, more often than not, I get off the beaten track and end up tossing them out the window. BUT...I'm determined to not let that happen in 2016. I'm determined to pick myself back up, dust off my britches, and get back to it if I get knocked off of the proverbial horse. Like right now...dusting myself off.

I did a lot of thinking about my goals and coming up with meaningful ones for me to work on this year...and I'm actually really excited about them and the possibilities of where they can take me!

Goal #1 - Be Financially Responsible
Ahhhhh - yes, MONEY!! It's necessary, but it sure is the bane of our existence sometimes. And it can cause so much grief if not handled appropriately. Here is it broken down:

• Set a budget monthly. My husband and I have a day calendared towards the end/beginning of each month to sit down and do a full review of how we did that month and create the plan for the next month making sure we budget for any extras like vehicle registrations, repairs of any kind, debt payoffs, etc. 
• Balance the checkbook each week to ensure nothing is getting missed and everything is hitting the account as it should be.
• Create a spending report for the month and use it as a balanced scorecard to assess if we are being financially responsible

Sure this isn't a glamorous goal and doesn't elicit all kinds of excitement like, perhaps, training for a first marathon or other life event. But this one sets the stage for everything else because if I'm spending all my time stressing about money, I won't have the energy to do the rest of what life requires.

Goal #2 - Position Myself for a Work Promotion

There's a possible opportunity for me to get a promotion this year at work and it's the one I've been waiting for. I've had several other chances to do other things at work that would have brought me increased pay, but for me anyways, work is about so much more than what I take home in my paycheck. So I made the conscious decision to hang back in the intention that down the road the job I want will open up. I think it is very real that this could happen in 2016. So in order to prepare myself for that I have some objectives outlined:

• Enhance my professional appearance - I always dress nice and professional especially when I consider the campus culture, but my feeling is that I take "casual Friday" and dressing down in summer more seriously than I need to. I would rather up my game in that arena and be dressing nicer rather than dressing with the crowd. I'm not talking super fancy like suits when the work culture is skirts and sweaters; but I'm talking that I can wear a nice pair of jeans with some appropriate boots, sweater or blouse and accessories. I don't need to wear a t-shirt to work pretty much ever. Simply put.
• I've been given the opportunity to participate in a year-long leadership program at work, and I'm so excited that I was selected. It's about 22 people that were nominated by their division leadership and it's a great group of people that are most likely the future generation of movers and shakers here at the college. So I'm quite humbled to be in such an esteemed group of colleagues. So needless to say, I'm planning on totally rocking the program and getting everything I can out of it.
• Start my Bachelor's Degree program. It's been too long and I've pushed it back enough. It's time to get it done. My plan is to be in my program by summer (July/August depending on when the cohort starts). To get there I need to secure my financial aid package (this goes with the financial responsibility goal too) and clear some stuff off of the personal plate to ensure my brain is available to get back in the swing of the educational game.
• And of course, be a stellar employee that is focused on work when I'm there. I need to cut out some of the distractions and be fully present in what I'm working on.

Goal #3 - Get to Goal Weight

No really...get to goal weight and keep it off! I know that I'm one of those people that has set this goal every year for so long, but I'm not going to let that keep me from chasing it this year again. I will meet it. I will. My objectives to accomplish this:

• I set this goal with my running coach, so we are going to be working on it together...talk about accountability!
• I will track my calories even though I hate it and I will drink at least 8 cups of water a day. I will pack my lunches more often than not and I will train consistently.
• I developed a reward plan that goes into effect on February 1 so I will earn some money to help me buy new clothes as I shrink out of what I have...or just to buy fun stuff along the way like kick-ass tunes or new books.
• I have plans to add back in some lunch time walks too, but I need to move it out of the "plan to" stage and into the "doing" stage. 
• (FYI - I'm down 6 pounds since the first of the year! Woohoo!!) 

Goal #4 - Develop My Blog
Yeah this little space of mine over here that I like to so often neglect. The reality is that I enjoy blogging, I just don't want to make it my career. So I've done a lot of thinking about what that means and how I should go about blogging without it consuming my every waking moment. (Obviously, I haven't done a very good job getting this one off the ground yet in 2016...but I'm dusting myself off!!)

• Blog 3x a week minimum on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday
• Develop a solid editorial calendar and stick to it as much as possible
• Set an appointment for writing content every night when I get home
• Study at least one blogging resource a week
• Attend the 2016 IDEA BlogFest!! (So excited about this one and that I get to attend as a Sweat Pink Ambassador!)
• Represent the brands that I am an ambassador for through consistent posting on social media and with appropriate blog posts

I have some other lesser goals like read more, journal more, perform maintenance around the house on a somewhat consistent schedule (like baseboard cleaning, light plate covers...things like that), check back in on my goals each month, etc. Those are more intentions of how I want to live though rather than a solid GOAL that I can measure. I also have three running specific goals that I will talk about in the near future. Stay tuned...

So there you have it - my 2016 goals! I think you can probably see that I did put some thought into these and I think they will all help me GROW this year!

QUESTION: Do you have goals set for this year? What are some of them and how are you working on achieving them?

Citrus Heritage Half Marathon - Race Review

This past Saturday, January 9, 2016, I participated in the Sixth Annual Citrus Heritage Run (third annual with the half marathon distance) in Riverside, CA. This is my third year doing this race and it is truly one of my favorites! Need evidence? You can read my race reports from 2015 and 2014 - Part I and Part II. Okay, so a couple notes about the race - there is a 5k and Half Marathon option as well as a kids fun run. It is an out-and-back course next to the Arlington Sports Park in the citrus area of the city of Riverside (Southern California/Inland Empire area). The race is put on by the Riverside Road Runners and benefits their youth scholarship fund. We had gotten a significant amount of rain the week leading up to the race, and in their last email to participants they noted that they had an alternate, all-road, course plotted out for use if needed as the regular course (USATF certified) is partially on dirt roads. Thankfully, we dried out enough that they didn't need to go to Plan B, but I was thrilled to know that they had an alternate course in place so that the race could go on rain or shine. Alright, let's talk details!

We were greeted with an amazing sunrise!

Registration

The day of registration cost for the half marathon was $90, and prior to that was $85. I registered fairly early so I think I got early bird pricing. If I remember right I think it was about $80, but don't quote me as I don't know exactly. They have a great event website that includes all the details and is very well organized. Registration and packet pick-up at the event is very easy as well. You just look up your bib number and then stop at the tent to get the bib, then get your t-shirt at a different tent. Super easy and well staffed. I don't think it took us more than 5 minutes to do the entire process and it was very clearly marked and easy to know where to go.

Expo and Venue

I absolutely love this venue for races! It is held at the same sports park that the Hometown Heroes Honor Run is held at so it offers lots of great parking, real restrooms (they also have plenty of port-a-pots too), and a playground to keep the kiddies entertained while waiting. It's also very easy to get in and out of and offers plenty of room to get a good warm-up in. The expo is very tiny, but I really don't care about that anyways. They have several booths, some food trucks, and a DJ getting the participants pumped up and ready to run. I love it just as it is because it is so easy to navigate and never feels overwhelming.

Swag

Participants get a long-sleeved technical shirt. This year the shirt is gray and has the logo on the front. Last year's shirt was prettier and had more detail, but I still really like it and gray seems to be the "it" color for race shirts right now as my friend Sally just did a race that also had gray/silver shirts. There really isn't anything else outside of the shirt, although there are other race perks that I'll talk about in post-race celebration in just a few moments. :)

Sally and I pre-race...freezing our tushies off! LOL Starting temps in the upper 30's/low 40's. Okay, I almost feel guilty saying that 30/40 is cold when I saw plenty of my friends around the country in negative degrees! HA!
But that's SoCal cold...sorry!

Course

I have made no bones before about how nice this course is! I really do love it as it has the perfect mix of gorgeous views, challenging terrain/hills, downhills, and turns to keep it interesting. Beginning at the Sports Park you immediately get a nice downhill to get you started as you run along orange groves before heading into the Historic Citrus Park. This first section has some fairly decent hills and can really kick your rear if you aren't careful. Racers pass by several real restrooms that are open for use during this section, and the citrus park has at least two aid stations. After the citrus park it is back out into the orange groves after off-roading for a little bit. Several miles wind through the orange groves and this terrain makes runners really focus on footing - which I actually like because it keeps me focusing on that instead of how tired I am! After the orange groves it is up a long gradual hill overlooking a beautiful canyon to the halfway turnaround. From there you get the downhill for a bit which is SO NICE before turning towards residential streets to run the final 5k of the race. There are a few more hills on the final stretch and they still throw me for a loop because I just don't have anything left by then. HA! There are a lot of port-a-pots along the course and they have the streets closed to traffic (THANK YOU!!!!). There are a lot of lot of aid stations well stocked with cold water and gatorade, and at the halfway they had oranges (ohemgee so delicious!!) and plenty of GU in lots of flavors to choose from. The volunteers at the aid stations are amazing and have it down to a science as they let you know if they have water or gatorade as you are coming up. Lots of great signs, cheering, and helpful volunteers out on a chilly morning! Two of my favorite things about this course is that there is a section where you pass the front of the pack runners - that is so motivating to just see them flying by; and then there is another section where you pass the 5k runners as they make their way into the citrus park...so much fun to get to "mingle" with the other runners. Plain and simple, I'll say it again, I love this course. It is my favorite half marathon course to date.

Just after the starting line! There's nothing like seeing runners for days ahead of you!! I <3 it!

Medal

The medal is amazing every single year! High quality, perfect size, pretty to look at, fabulous ribbon. Take a look:

I love their medals each year and they are some of my favorites hanging on the medal rack. They definitely get this right every single year.

Here's a picture of me holding it so you can get some size perspective. It's not huge, but it's definitely not tiny either. I would say it is Goldilocks "just right".

My Gear

I wore the following:

Skirt Sports BBF Beanie in Pink Crush (on sale for $9.99 right now and I LOVE IT!!)

Skirt Sports Don't Sweat It Long Sleeve in Razz (I wore the Ambassador top that isn't available, but they have other awesome prints available!)

Skirt Sports Jette Capri Skirt in Poparazzi

Skirt Sports socks (not currently available)

Flip Belt*

Mizuno Wave Rider 17's

Fuel was Island Boost and GU Chomps (I alternated for a total of 4 times fueling during race)

*I'm struggling with a way to carry my new iPhone 6s Plus so I had to break out my FlipBelt. It did fit, with the case on if I really stuffed it in there, but I think I'm probably one of the only people on the planet that doesn't really care for the FlipBelt. I don't know if it's just my body shape, but they say that it won't ride up and will stay where you put it...nope, not for me. I would prefer to wear it around my hips, but it always makes its way up to my waist (usually taking my shirt with it risking flashing people) and that makes it difficult to get anything out of it. That's the other part of my dislike, you have to flip it over to keep items inside, but then you can't get anything out of it without flipping it back over and then you run the risk of items falling out. I lost my body glide during my marathon and a chapstick another run. One final thing I don't like about it is that it doesn't have a waterproof layer so my phone case was all sweaty at the end of the run. Moisture + Phone = Bad Idea. Right? haha The only reason I'm using it right now is because I didn't have anything else that I could use for my phone. If you have any recommendations, please let me know!!

The clothes were all spot on and absolutely perfect. I have zero complaints about anything I was wearing outside of the Flip Belt. Skirt Sports is just the best. I'll have a 2016 discount code available for you very soon!

My Race

You guys - I had a really good race!! Coach Tiffany and I had decided prior to the race that this wouldn't be a PR push and would be an opportunity for me to just get out and run and see where I'm at so we can put together a great plan for my spring races. I knew I wanted to start off nice and slow so I didn't get tight legs/shins like I have in the past, I knew that I wanted to walk through the aid stations and take in some water/gatorade at each as I was not carrying any water on me this time (wanted to see how it went if I didn't carry my own since it wasn't a PR push), and I knew that I wanted to try to tackle the hills stronger than I have in the past. If I needed to walk them I would, but I would definitely try to not let them get into my head. So with those goals in mind, I started off slow, gradually geared up and didn't let the hills scare me. When we got to the first big hill I looked and it and said out loud "I LOVE HILLS!!! I'm going to totally run this thing right now! I eat hills for breakfast!" I don't know what else I said but I pretty much convinced myself up the entire thing and then I got to the top of this hill that I walked the previous two years and wanted to absolutely burst into tears that I DID IT!! I ran it and I didn't even feel like I was going to die. And the kicker? I didn't start walking at the top...I kept running right up the next hill, and right up the next one, and so on and so forth. For 10 miles I ran every single hill and I only stopped to walk through the aid stations. The mental boost from that...I can't even begin to tell you how good it felt.

Sally and I getting our groove on!

I took a brief moment of pause at the halfway point to take off my beanie and throw my hair into a ponytail as I was getting too warm. My gloves came off about 7 miles in. My sleeves rolled up about 8 miles in. haha Okay, so you know I ran strong for 10 miles but I definitely felt the fatigue really settle in at that point and I ended up taking some walk breaks during the remainder of the race. I was really feeling the fatigue in my hips and feet, so I started picking out a spot to run to, then would walk to a spot, and then start again. But I typically get tired much earlier than 10 miles, so I was thrilled. I finally headed to the finish line and kicked it into high gear to sprint to the finish line! I even got another gal to really pick it up because she could see me coming up behind her and she wasn't about to let me pass her! I told her she better get it if she didn't want me to beat her! We high-fives each other at the end of the race. LOL I just love that...the spirit of perseverance. She was a fighter and I salute that! Before I share my finish time for this race, I want to share my previous two finish times first.

2014: 2:53:20
2015: 2:59:01

And this year:
2016: 2:38:55

Guys - that's 20 minutes faster than last year and 15 minutes faster than 2014 on the exact same course!!! A 15-minute course PR!!!!!!!! Am I excited about that? HECK YEAH!!! And what's my overall half PR? 2:42 at the Tinkerbell in 2012. A flat course that I ran before my knee disaster! So not only did I get a 15-minute course PR, I also got a 4-minute half marathon PR. My work with Coach Tiffany is totally paying off. I said in my post on Instagram/Facebook that I don't do it very often as I tend to be very hard on myself, but I'm so proud of my effort on this race. I wasn't going for a PR, but I got one anyways. But more important to me than any numbers was that I ran those hills that beat me every other time. More important is that I felt great. More important is that I fueled and hydrated to plan. More important is that when my watch clicked off the miles I was shocked at how quickly it was going by. I feel like I won a mental battle on this run and that is the absolute most important. I'm gonna ride this runner's high for a while. LOL

Post-Race

The post-race amenities at this one are pretty good. They have bananas, fresh oranges, and Clif bars, full water bottles, and Gatorade along with bowls of chili from Farmer Boys (a local burger joint that is just now expanding to the Los Angeles area). They also had mylar blankets this year and had the beer garden back again. One of the best things about the beer garden? They had belly bars (those are the high tables) and bowls of pretzels on the tables. Nice touch!! (I didn't partake in the beer garden, but a nice gentleman was more than happy to put my ticket to use! hahaha)

Final Thoughts

Did you guys get the idea that I really like this race? *wink* I really do - I love this race. Gorgeous course with just enough challenge, great amenities, wonderful course support, lots of volunteers, great swag in a beautiful location at a perfect time of year. What more can you ask for? Seriously, you won't be sorry if you run this race. Hope that you'll join me in 2017 because I will definitely be back!!

Finally, I will also highlight that this is part of the Run Riverside Challenge series so I got some extra swag this one! Here's all the Run Riverside medals from 2015-16:

And here's all of them from the beginning of this series that began three years ago!

Half Marathon #7 is in the books! Run happy, or dance, or skip, or jump, or whatever, my friends!

One Word 2016

There's so much that goes on to get a year started! I have goals to share, my one little word, my racing plans and calendar...so. much. good. stuff! And when I have all that good stuff, I tend to let my brain get overwhelmed and then just stick my head in the sand and don't share a darn thing. HA! But I realized once I put some brain power into it (what do you know...that actually works) I realized that there was a logical order to the sharing and the first thing is my One Word for this year because that word has informed everything else seeing how its my focus for the year. Makes sense, no?

So let me give you a little background. Back in 2010 my bestie, Rebecca, presented this idea to me that she had heard about of picking a word to be your intention for the entire year. We both really liked the concept and totally ran with it. I picked Peace and she picked Joy. And whoa...if we had known how powerful having a single word could be I don't know that we would have done it! Well, at the very least we both agreed later that we would have been more cautious in choosing. LOL Because we both went through a pretty crazy journey that year and our words were very prominent in that journey. I'm kind of glad we didn't know though because that's the way it SHOULD be...kind of the purpose right? At any rate, by the end of the year we were sold! And we've been doing it together ever since. If you want more information about this, just Google One Little Word (Ali Edwards has registered that one) or One Word Resolution and you'll find all kinds of info about it. I don't know who created the concept originally but whoever it was is brilliant! My words have been:

2010: Peace
2011: Quality (how my little blog got its name!)
2012: Strong (I did the Ali Edwards One Little Word(r) workshop that year - it's amazing - she's amazing!)
2013: Light
2014: Courage (the year I ran my marathon!)
2015: Now

So enough with the history, let's get to 2016's word, shall we? My word for 2016 is: GROW

I usually start thinking about my word for the next year in November and this year was no different. And I usually have lots of different words that bubble up to the surface. Some I even think are really going to be it, but then I roll it around in my brain a little and sometimes the bubble pops and I realize that its' not THE word yet. This year I was doing a lot of reflecting on 2015 because as I mentioned when I was wrapping up my year of NOW, it was a pretty rough year. It ended great and had a strong fourth quarter. But that first 3/4 of the year really took me for a ride. I was thinking about how it really felt like I had been tilling the hard ground with little to no progress, but then I finally got past the hard bedrock, and added enough water to soften it up, that there was finally a breakthrough and some seeds could be planted in fertile ground. I think you probably see where this is going...haha Several words bloomed from there - like nurture, cultivate, blossom but they still weren't quite right and I knew it. And then while driving in the car to work there it was...grow. And it felt so right. So I held onto it nice and tight to see if it would pop, but it didn't. And as I started thinking about what it meant and shared it with my bestie, it definitely became the word for 2016.

It means that seeds planted in 2015 are going to grow this year. I want to grow as a person in so many different ways and I want to continue to grow in my marriage and relationships. I want to nurture and water my soul and pull the weeds that will try to choke my little seeds that are already beginning to search out the sunshine. I'm sure I will also continue to plant seeds that will grow in 2016...new seeds that I don't even know are there yet!

I'm looking forward to spending a year focusing on everything "grow" means to me! I want to see my life bloom and blossom and just be a riot of colors and fragrances that I can't even possibly imagine right now! I want to have an abundance of goodness ready to harvest throughout the year that will sustain me, my family, and all those around me! It's going to an awesome year!!

Bliss...

I had the good fortune of taking a few extra days off of work following the winter break. My intention is that I will get some home stuff taken care of - things that I can't ever seem to find the time for during the year like organizational things, giving the shower and tub a really good scrubbing, cleaning out some drawers and closets of items that haven't been touched in forever...you know, fun stuff like that. HA! I know it may seem silly to take vacation days to do things like this, but for me it does my mental state a world of good to start the year off feeling like I've accomplished some things around the house. The reality is that during the busy holiday season, there just isn't time for it. So now that the holidays have passed I can turn my focus.

Today was my first day at home and it didn't actually end up being what I had intended, but it was absolute PERFECTION. I may have only gotten the home office/workout room organized and cleaned, but it meant so much more more than that! Because what I did was totally kill my workout, enjoy a nice cup of coffee as my reward, get my home office organized/cleaned including finding homes for all the christmas gifts that were scattered around, and writing all my thank you cards.

All this while the rain gently fell outside (at this point anyways, as El Nino finally arrived in SoCal and has been making his presence known most of the day), the candles burned created a calming scent of vanilla and spice, and Spotify gave me wonderful music totally new to me on my Discovery playlist for the week. And the house...the house was at total peace and calm! Joshua was at school, Angelique and Tasha are in Hawaii, Brandon and Pat were at work, and Michelle was upstairs finding her own bliss. It was absolutely AH-MAZ-ING!!! I kind of just kept saying to myself "I can't believe how absolutely perfect today is"...and it was. Absolutely. Perfect. My soul is happy and at peace.

Tomorrow I can scrub the showers and clean the blinds. Today I will be happy to have such a blessed day in quiet reflection and preparation for an amazing year.

Make it awesome, friends!

Training Lately...

I mentioned in my Ultimate Coffee Date post that I reviewed my Believe training journal from the last year and was disappointed by how often I saw remarks like "could have done better" or "ugh, bad week in training", or even "skipped this, skipped this, and skipped this".

I also mentioned that I usually do the same thing every year - I say THIS YEAR I'm going to do a better job! THIS YEAR I'm going to train like a beast. THIS YEAR I'm going to hit all my workouts. But do I? Nope...

It's so frustrating and, honestly, I don't know how to go about breaking out of that destructive cycle. I start a training cycle fired up and ready to totally go Beast Mode all over it and halfway through I'm shortening workouts, skipping the stretching, and that's only IF I did the workout at all. By the end I'm just like Eh - whatever...I've already screwed the pooch on this one anyways. NEXT TIME I'll kill it. Ugh...

So how has my training been going lately? Let's see...

Monday 12/28: Did the 3 miles, but didn't hit the paces Coach Tiffany gave me
Tuesday 12/29: Rested (could have done a Barre workout, but I opted for total lazy instead)
Wednesday 12/30: 3 miles, but walked half of it for no real good reason
Thursday 12/31: Skipped my 3 mile timed workout
Friday 1/1: Light stretching and leg balance exercises
Saturday 1/2: Should have done 6 miles, did 3.3 instead
Sunday 1/3: Light stretching and leg balance exercises

So there's an entire week of workouts and you can see that I pretty much blew off every single one of them in one way or another AND I have a flipping half marathon in 6 days!!!! Seriously...why do I sabotage myself like this?!? I don't get it...I'm actually pretty good about getting my work job done, why can't I apply the same principles to my workouts? Or my healthy eating? I'm pretty much figuring that Coach Tiffany is totally disgusted with me or at the very least is questioning my commitment to my training...as she should be on both fronts.

But I'll keep on trying guys...I'm not going to just quit saying THIS YEAR, or THIS TRAINING CYCLE, or even THIS DAY. I'm going to keep pushing to kill it because perhaps someday I actually will!!! I will give myself credit for something - I don't quit. I keep failing and won't give up. hahaha

Seriously though - I'm all about persistence folks, even if it is persistence at telling myself to be persistent. Someday it's gotta stick, right?? ;-)

One thing I am going to do though is share my training progress a little more. I know it might be boring as hell for some and you have my permission to skip it completely if you so desire. But I need some accountability if I'm going to head into my new training cycle - heck, if I'm going to head into my planned workout tomorrow! - with the right frame of mind of totally killing it. I can do it...I can do it...I can do it. Say it with me now... :-)

Ultimate Coffee Date - New Year Edition January 2016

Happy New Year everyone!! Hope that your 2016 is off to a great start...I've been meaning to spend a Saturday with Confessions of a Mother Runner and her co-hosts, Coco and Lynda, doing The Ultimate Coffee Date for months and months, so I finally figured - hey, when is a better time to do something you've been meaning to do than a new year?? Right? So join me with a warm beverage - doesn't have to be coffee and doesn't even need to be warm - and let's spend a few minutes enjoying each other's company. :-)

If we were having coffee...I would tell you that I had an absolutely amazing holiday season. I indulged pretty much as much as I wanted to, I was lazy when I felt like it, and I may have even taken a few naps and spent a few days in my PJ's all day. It was pretty epic but has left me feeling like a slug.

If we were having coffee...I would be super excited to tell you that I bought myself a planner that I'm so happy to have in my arsenal this year! It's not a super fancy schmancy Erin Condren planner like all the cool kids have, but it's going to work very nicely for me. It's a Me & My Big Ideas Happy Planner and will be a perfect starter planner. I used to use a Franklin Covey and it was great, but I moved away from it to a more electronic to-do system. I want to use my planner to not just be a catalog of appointments and tasks, but to serve as a journal/scrapbook of where I've been during the year. I'm super excited to fill it!

If we were having coffee...I would tell you that I went back through my Believe training journal that I started using at the beginning of 2015 and it was an eye opener. Not necessarily in a good way. Sure, I ran 569.12 miles in 153 activities and that's awesome! I'm certainly happy with that. But what made it an eye opener is that in the journal portion or the check-ins was all the "could have been better; should have tried harder; not as good as I wanted it to be." Lots of coulda, shoulda, woulda's. And if I'm honest and go back and re-read old journal entries or blog posts, I see a lot of the same thing. I would tell you that I'm tired of feeling like I'm coming up just short of the finish line and if I'm being honest with myself I'm DNF-ing on my goals and effort in reaching them. I want to change that in 2016!!

If we were having coffee...I would tell you that I'm running my first half marathon of the year in only one more week! I don't know how, but I swear these things always have a way of sneaking up on me. I plan for them and do workouts to prepare for them and then all of a sudden they just jump out of nowhere and are like HEY! It's time!!! and I'm left saying, But, But...I'm not ready for this!! LOL

And finally, if we were having coffee...I would tell you how excited I am to be back representing Skirt Sports again for 2016 as an Ambassador Captain, and that I'm thrilled to also be a Nuun Ambassador for 2016! I feel like I'm finally nailing down my fueling and hydration on long runs and Nuun is a big part of that so I'm really excited to be a part of the Nuunbassador family. All in all, if we were having coffee, I would tell you that I'm feeling pretty darn good about 2016 and where it might take me!

I've really enjoyed my coffee date with you and I'll see you back here again soon! I still have my goals to share - I came up with some really great ones this year and feel like I'm finally in a place where they won't just get forgotten (thank you, Happy Planner!!) and I will also be sharing my One Little Word for 2016 soon as well. And that one is also a great one that I think will bring me lots of amazing growth this year.

I hope you all had a safe and happy holiday season and that you have kicked off 2016 with some excitement and planning for the future! See you again real soon!