2013 Year in Review

Wow!  What a year it has been!

Obviously my year has been all about him.

  

Anderson came into our lives in March and my life is forever changed for the better.

After the baby was born it was time to get my running groove back.  This proved to be a little harder than I envisioned.  I had and continue to have a hard time losing the last bit of pregnancy weight, which obviously affects my running.  In addition, my c-section hurt for a long time and sometimes still bothers me doing certain core workouts.  I haven't gotten all my speed back but I've certainly had glimpses of my former self in racing this year.  I did 13 races in 2013, anything from a 5K to a marathon.  I did my first and a few more trail races.  I even won a race.  I finished a little shy of my 1000 mile goal at 925, but that's a heck of an effort considering I really didn't start running until May and I endured an injury at the end of the year.

What else?  What else?

I read a lot in 2013.  Sixteen books, in fact.  There were at least two other books I started and did not finish (both about nutrition, funny enough).  Here's the list of the books I did read.

    1. "The Art of Racing" in the Rain by Garth Stein
    2. "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chobsky
    3. "C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race" by Geoff Williams
    4. "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed
    5. "Coraline" by Neil Gaiman
    6. "Sway" by Amber McRee Turner
    7. "Forever" by Judy Blume
    8. "That's Why I'm Here" by Chris Spielman
    9. "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd
    10. "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?" by Mindy Kaling
    11. "Eleanor and Park" by Rainbow Rowell
    12. "Keep on Running" by Phil Hewitt
    13. "A Life Without Limits" by Chrissie Wellington
    14. "Naked" by David Sedaris
    15. "Don't Put Me in Coach" by Mark Titus
    16. "The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving" by Jonathan Evison 

We traveled quite a bit in 2013.  In fact, Anderson has visited seven states already.  We spent a partial week of vacation in Michigan with my entire family.  We had a great time kayaking, tubing, and boating.   Make sure you click on the link for tons of pictures.  We also went to Hilton Head (where all Ohioans go) for a week with my parents.  We had a great time relaxing at the beach.

Finally, we closed out the year by buying a new house and putting our house up on the market.  Our house is still for sale and we're really praying it will sell quickly as we really don't want to lose out on the other house.  We really, really love the new house and want to be able to make it a home for Anderson.  If you want information on our house for sale or know anyone who wants to move to New Albany, please let a comment with an email address and I'll forward you the information.

Happy New Year internet.  I'm looking forward to a great 2014.

13 in '13 February Progress Report

Check out the 13 in '13 list here.

Plans for February:
Honestly, I didn't have many plans for February.  As I've gotten further along in my pregnancy, it's been hard to set goals as you never know what will happen.  The goal, in terms of working out, is to keep doing it in some form as long as I can into this pregnancy.  We had also planned on trying not to eat out.  Maybe this goal was set too high.  :)  We did a pretty good job this month of grocery shopping and eating in, but fall off the wagon hard when we cannot get to the grocery store.

Achievements in February:
I read my third book in 2013 in February and I'm more than halfway through my fourth.  I read "C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race" by Geoff Williams, which was about the first organized running race across the US.  If you think race organization sucks now, you should read this book.  You'll be thankful for your races now.

I ran/walked almost the exact same number of miles in February as I did in January.  In January I did 46 miles and in February I did 45.13 miles.  So I am 9.113% to my goal of 1000 miles in 2013.  I've got a long way to go!

Finally, I've kind of fallen off the blogging train.  I missed one day in January, which I totally can still do and know exactly what I want to blog about that day.  I've missed a few days here and there this month and don't know what to blog about to fill them in.  When you are super-pregnant, barely doing any running, and rarely leaving the house there's not much to blog about.


I have no idea what to expect for March.  I'm about 99% sure that this baby is coming in March which may shut down a whole lot - especially running, obviously.

Anything that I you'd like to see me blog about to try to keep the streak alive?  I have a few people who mentioned talking about my business.  I would love to, but we're currently tangled up in a legal dispute and I'd prefer not to say anything until it is all resolved.  Hopefully the weather will soon turn to spring and being outside will help bring about some new things to blog about.  And obviously, the little one's arrival will bring about, I'm sure, hilarity for these first time parents.  See you in March!

13 in '13 January Progress Report

If you remember, I set out 13 goals to achieve for myself in 2013.  The detailed list of the goals can be found here.  You can also check out the list and what has been achieved by clicking the "13 in '13" tab at the top of the blog.

Plans for January...

I had planned in January to eat in every meal, every day, for the whole month.  I was, surprisingly, good for about two weeks and then things fell apart.  First of all, Dave and I have lunch with some of our college buddies every Friday.  We haven't decided how to factor this into "does this or doesn't this count" as actually being part of this challenge.  Dave says no because it would be rude to not have lunch with our friends and as long as we're paying with cash, we're not racking up dollars on the credit card bill.  I think, yes, it totally counts and would prefer to eat in EVERY meal.  I mean, that's the challenge, right?  In addition, Dave's had a rough work schedule.  There was actually a week in January where he worked 60 hours in 4 days, including one day that was 20 hours.  So, that week turned into a lot of order in, carry out.  By the end of the month, we had totally failed, run out of cash, and were using our credit card.  Better luck next time, I guess.

I had thought I might be able to get in a race or two in January.  There was a 5K earlier in the month that I really had my heart set on.  I didn't sign up in advance, but was prepared to run it.  The day before, however, the person who bought our treadmill finally coordinated a time with me for pickup and it would be during the race.  I had been trying for weeks for her to come pick it up, so I decided to skip the race and have it her pick up the treadmill instead.  Too bad.  The weather was perfect for this race.  Last weekend was race #2 of this series.  Same course, totally different weather.  Last week you remember I mentioned it had snowed and we had cold temperatures (sounds like most of this winter).  I didn't even bat an eye at missing this race.  My friends had promised me cookies and gosh darn it, I wanted the cookies.

Achievements in January...
I did read two books in January.  Well, a book and a half.  I read "The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein.  There seemed to be a lot of fanfare behind this book.  I thought it was a pretty easy read, but it wasn't anything to race about.  I don't know.  I just haven't found a whole lot of fiction that I have liked lately.  Then I finally finished up "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chobsky.  I had started this book last summer, but couldn't finish it up in enough time before my loan ran out at the library.  I thought I was 2/3 of the way through it when I returned it last summer.  Guess I was only halfway through it when I picked it back up in January.  I got into it for a while, but was thoroughly disappointed when I got through the epilogue.  Seriously, I didn't get it.  And now I definitely won't be seeing the movie.  I am now halfway through the third book of the year and have two more in the pipeline.  Twelve books is starting to look promising for 2013.

Although we were unsuccessful at eating in everyday this month, we were able to try a new recipe and I did a little more cooking than normal.  We have since tried a totally new recipe, something neither of us had had before, and I will be blogging about it on Monday.  

Finally, although it's not much, I have contributed 46 miles towards my goal of 1000 for the year.  That's a whopping 4.6%!

What did you get done in January?  Anything you want to brag about?

13 in '13

Last year I sent 12 goals for myself and called in "12 for 2012". I didn't accomplish all the goal as I didn't really foresee getting pregnant in the middle of the year either.  I did accomplish quite a few, though.  I was excited to set new PRs, race in new state, and complete 12 races despite finding out I was pregnant in late July.

2013 is a big question mark.  January 1st came really fast and I realized I didn't have any resolutions or goals set yet.  It's hard for me to set these goals both personally and athletically as I have no idea what's going to happen after the baby is born.  But, I think it's important to set goals.  And Dave and I have already talked about equal time training despite having a baby.  Running/triathlon is important to us and having a baby isn't going to change that.  Maybe that sounds selfish - I think it's the right kind of selfish.  I don't want to be one of those chicks who becomes all about her kid and loses herself.  Anyway....onto the goals.

(I will be posting these as a page link at the top of the blog soon.)

1. Original size and weight
Yes, I know, I know.  It's going to take some time to get back to where I was pre-pregnancy.  But, if I don't set it as a goal, I'm not sure I have the willpower to do it on my own.  I love junk food.  I love being lazy.  But, I also love my skinny jeans.  I have a beach vacation planned in September so that's where I am targeting to hopefully get as close as I can to where I was before baby.

2. Unspoken Running Goal #1
This year I've decided to keep some of my running goals to myself.  This will help me deal with the anxiety of publicly having to live up to a big goal.  This one is a BIG one and one I totally think I can do.

3. New PR
I've probably only got a few years left of trying to achieve a new PR.  I'm not really sure what new PR I'm going to go after as I have no idea what races or distances I am going to do in 2013, but I'm hoping there is a new PR in the new year.

4. Run a Trail Race
It's hard to believe in my 11+ years of running that I have not done a trail race.  Personally, I love pounding the pavement, but my running style lends itself well to trail running (or at least that's what I think because I'm also a good snow runner).  Trail racing has been growing in size in Columbus during the last year with many more races and series.  I hope to get in on the action this year.

5. Read 12+ Books
This goal is on my list every year.  Unfortunately, it's been many years since I've actually accomplished it.  Now that I know how to download books straight from the library to my iPad, I think I'll be doing a lot more reading, especially since there will be many, many night feedings.

6. Run 1000 miles
I was totally on track this amount of miles and beyond in 2012, but obviously the training came to a screeching halt after I found out I was pregnant.  This is a goal that's going to be difficult to accomplish as the first 4+ months of the year will involve very little running/walking.

7. Run 12 Races
Again, another difficult task given that I probably won't be doing any races until May at the earliest.  But, I would like to race more, shorter races, which require much less recovery and can be done more often.

8. Eat in every meal, every day, for a month
There is a lot behind this goal.  First of all, Dave and I eat out a lot.  It's so easy to do where we live as we are within a mile or two of basically every restaurant in America.  But, that food is bad for us and we spend a lot of money eating out.  We got good about it for a few months last year when we gave ourselves a cash allowance for eating out, but then we got lazy again and just started pulling out the credit card.  We still plan on doing the cash allowance for eating out, but planning on eating in more so we can put that money in our pockets.  The other thought behind this goal is post-baby.  First of all, we just won't be able to eat out.  It will be a heck of a lot more difficult.  But, the verdict is still out regarding my return to work.  Right now we're leaning towards me staying home, but we want to reevaluate our budget and make sure we can do it.  Part of that involves, for myself, providing that we can eat in and save money.  Plus it will help us get better about meal planning and grocery shopping.  Something we completely suck at.  We have already started this goal in January.  So far, so good.

9. Learn to cook; try new food/recipes
This goal definitely goes with the one above.  Confession....Dave does the majority of the cooking in the house.  I'm just not good at it and he is.  But, I want to learn to cook better.  I want to learn to like new food instead of my pizza and burgers diet.  I don't know exactly how to measure this goal (a goal has to be measurable, after all) but maybe I'll bring back my "Monday's Menu" segment of the blog to show we're trying new things.  Maybe some pictures to prove that I'm the one doing the cooking?

10. Unspoken Running Goal #2
Yep, another goal I want to keep to myself.  This one's a big one and will take a lot of work.

11. Take More Pictures
I love to take pictures.  I love to appear in pictures more, though.  :)  I always have at least one camera with me, pretty much all the time.  And yet, I rarely take pictures anymore.  I think this will be an easier goal once the kiddo comes along.  Yeah, I'm gonna be one of those moms who posts pictures of her kids all the damn time.  Get ready internet!

12. Blog Everyday
Obviously, I already started this one in October.  I plan on going every day for a year whether that means calling it quits mid-October when I hit one year or going all the way until December 31st.  I'm wondering how difficult this will be post-baby.  I'm also wondering how difficult this will be once I start training again, as I'd kinda like to keep my training and racing details a little more private in 2013.

13. Learn How to Flip Turn
Frankly, I'm too good of a swimmer to not be flip turning.  I do know how to flip turn, I just can't really use it in practice.  My stroke tends to be a little erratic and gets a little off for using the flip turn every time.  I also finds that it zaps my energy to flip turn.  But, I really want to learn to use it all the time and put it into practice.

What do you think of the list?  Are any of these goals on your list?  What goals are you striving for in 2013?