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March Goals

March 2, 2012 · by Ari ·

Hello friends! Life has been surprisingly busy this past week. It’s been really nice to stay busy and not be sitting alone at home, and I’ve actually been pretty productive! I’ve gotten a lot of work done. I baked donuts for the first time! They were delicious, but no matter how many times I tried to get good pictures with my point and shoot (Steve took the fancy camera to LA. Boo.) they never quite looked pretty. I’ll just have to recreate them when he comes home. Cinnamon sugar cake donuts with a cinnamon brown sugar topping. Yummm. I worked some more, got dry needled again…this time in both legs. Ouch. More work, had the most delicious breakfast ever!

Why yes, that is oats in a Nutella jar. It was just as delicious as you would imagine.

I’ve also been riding my bike a whole lot. Tuesday am I skipped out on spin in favor of getting some much needed work done, so I ended up going to a bike ride that afternoon, and it’s pretty much the only thing I’ve done for exercise every day since. No, I’m not happy about it. Don’t get me wrong, I am in so much love with my bike, and riding it is so fun and relaxing, but you know what? It’s just not the same as running.

Unfortunately, I’ve been in quite a bit of pain lately, and it was enough to stop me from running Tuesday when I wanted to and even Wednesday morning when it was scheduled into my phone. KT, my physical therapist, first gave me a lecture about how I never listen to her, then I got super defensive promised to take any advice she gave me. Of course, I am not a fan of her advice. She told me to take a week off. I know a week isn’t that long, but I’ve only run twice since The Lost Dutchman, and I miss it. I was so excited about my speed work out on Monday, and I was really looking forward to keeping up the momentum and getting faster. I know in reality a week won’t really derail me, and mostly I just want to feel better. When I went shopping with Nicole on Monday, I was hobbling around the store ๐Ÿ™

In other news, one thing I wanted to start doing was setting goals at the beginning of each month, and check in at the end. Monica does this and I really like it! I set some 2012 goals, then totally forgot about it in February. Whoops. So here we go…!

March Goals:

  • Schedule EVERYTHING. I keep double booking myself, and luckily I have amazing friends that have been able to help me out, and understanding family that doesn’t tell me just how much I suck, but I don’t prefer feeling like a flake. One of the hardest parts about my career is the scheduling, so I need to figure out how to make it work for me.
  • Always respond to communication. I used to be like the best person about keeping in touch, responding to every email I received and being available pretty much at all times. I think I got a little burnt out, but when you don’t respond to work emails for days at a time, it doesn’t look so great and people may never want to hire you again. I have to be honest when I say that I am SO OVER non personal forms of communication like email and texting, but I know that at least email is necessary, and I need to respond to everything within a 24 hour period.
  • Drink water with every meal and snack. I have a confession. I am motivated enough to run for miles on end, but I am literally too lazy to walk to the kitchen for a glass of water. It’s awful. If I go out and have a waiter, I will drink cup after cup until I’m in the bathroom every 5 minutes, but left to my own devices, I am a lazy bum, and that needs to stop, because being hydrated is super important to my health.
  • Be mindful of intellectual labelings of emotional responses. WTF does that mean? Well, I learned recently that although our emotional responses are partially chemical, that many emotions are the same in our chemistry, such as sad/disappointed/guilty,ย  angry/empowered, anxious/excited. We cannot control our chemical response. However, we can take bigger charge of our mood (and sanity) by choosing more appropriate labels. For me the big ones are going to be choosing excitement/anticipation over anxiety, and sad over guilty, because anxiety and guilt are two things that I struggle with. It’s interesting how challenging it is to make an active choice to feel less crappy, or a different kind of crappy in a situation. Once I feel like crap, my mental response is to want to just feel like crap, and I get frustrated at the idea of trying to change it! Well, that’s silly and not very mature, so I’m gonna put on my big girl pants (while still believing in fairies and such) and work on taking some control over how I respond emotionally to my life.

I’ll check back in at the end of the month and see how I did. I have a feeling most of these are going to be a work in progress, so I’m just looking for growth, not a bandaid.

What about you? Any goals you want to accomplish this month??

Filed Under: Uncategorized · Tagged: goals, life, oatmeal, work

Check, Next?

January 18, 2012 · by Ari ·

For the last 4 months, I have had one big goal in mind: 13.1. It’s always weird when you accomplish something and don’t have an other big goal lined up immediately. A gray area with no specific goals, and what feels like a lack of direction. I know that I need a goal, and I know that I WANT a goal. I saw a shirt during the race that said “The finish line is just the beginning.” I love that.

Well, of course I’ve kind of been thinking about what would come next, since I figured out I’d actually be able to make it through the half. I’ll be honest, when I first decided I wanted to do PF Chang’s, I more decided to train than race. I mean, I wanted to race, but I wasn’t anywhere near confident I’d actually make it there. I don’t know exactly when my mind changed, but I think it was when I did my 10 mile solo run. As soon as I knew I could do it, my mind started to wonder “What else did you always tell yourself you could never do?” I knew the answer immediately, and I didn’t make it much of a secret. Let’s be honest, I put it out there for the world to see in my 2o12 goals.

But in case you missed that, let me put it out there for realsies.

I want to run a full marathon.

Duh. I know I want to run a full, and I know that with the right training, I can. The question is when. And that is what I would like help with from you fabulous people. There are two that I am strongly considering, and I don’t know which way to go. I would also be open to a different suggestions ๐Ÿ™‚

Option 1:

RnR San Diego June 3 2012

Pros:

  1. It is sooner rather than later! I’m already on the training bandwagon–why stop now?
  2. It ends at Sea World. ‘Nuff said.
  3. I love San Diego, and it’s only a 6 hour drive.

Cons:

  1. Is it too soon? Would I actually be ready by June?
  2. I’d probably have to drive back that night, or take the entire next week off work and not get paid (it’s complicated, but it’s how most summer work would be).
  3. In case you haven’t noticed, AZ is a HOT place and by May, it’s already in the 100s. Can you imagine doing a 20 miler in those temps?

RnR Phoenix 2013

Pros:

  1. Close to home, wouldn’t have to go anywhere.
  2. Winter training.
  3. More time to work up to it,

Cons:

  1. I said I wanted to do a full in 2012. That is 2013.
  2. Is it too far away to be motivating?
  3. I’m going to run 26 miles and I don’t even get to go on vacation?!
  4. It does NOT end at Sea World.

I know there are lots of other non RnR races out there too, and I would be totally open to trying a different one. RnR just makes it so easy with their little packets and all their course dates, and both of those races fall at times that I think I could make work. I would love to hear your opinions as I weigh things out in my brain for a bit!

I also have an other goal ๐Ÿ™‚ I never expected to finish PF Chang’s in 2 hours and 14 minutes! When I first started, I was anticipating something like 2:45! I totally surprised myself and now I want to get faster! I really want a nice, shiny, sub 2:10 finish time. I want to run more half marathons, 10Ks and 5Ks and I want to get faster and better and more confident! I’m pretty sure I’m going to sign up for the Lost Dutchman 1/2 Marathon on Feb 19, but that’s all I’ve got so far. Thanks, Diana, for the recommendation! Any other races that I should be thinking of?

Filed Under: Uncategorized · Tagged: goals, running

2012 Goals

December 31, 2011 · by Ari ·

If you know me at all, you know how I feel about New Years resolutions. Every time I hear the words “After the first of the year…” it’s like nails on a chalkboard to me! I am a firm believer that if you want to change something, you don’t wait for the first of the year, or month, or Monday, or even the next day. If you really want to change something, don’t waste any time. Start now. This second.ย  I would love to say that my New Years resolutions are to clean more, do my laundry, and stop procrastinating, but let’s get real and say if I reaaaalllllly care enough about those things (I want to care enough!!!), then I will fix them when I’m ready and a different ending on the date stamp doesn’t necessarily inspire me.

However, I am big on setting goals for myself. I read a lot of blogs where they set monthly goals. I love that and I want to steal it! I definitely have a few goals that I really want to accomplish in the next year. Some are running/fitness related:

  1. Cross the PF Chang’s finish line with a big ass grin on my face. Yes, Big.Ass.Grin.
  2. 26.2
  3. Run a 7:59 min mile.
  4. Try crossfit.
  5. Try hot yoga.
  6. Keep strength training consistent.

Some are food related:

  1. Drink 9-10 cups of water per day. (I either do really well or really awful on this one, not usually in between.)
  2. Try at least one new recipe per week.
  3. Only eat out 1-2x per week. (I get so stuck in the “Let’s go out!” mentality.)

Some are more life related things I have been trying to focus on in the last year that I don’t feel like I’ve fully accomplished yet:

  1. Give others the benefit of the doubt, and don’t take every action personally.
  2. Chill the F out! Umm, this has been a goal since JULY. Clearly, it’s a work in progress.
  3. Have patience. With others, with myself, with life.
  4. Focus on career goals and choose work accordingly.
  5. Continue working towards balance in all areas of life (I have come a long way, but I still have a long way to go).
  6. Sing and dance. Every day.
  7. Be me, no matter who else is around (again, still working on it).
  8. For the love of all things holy, TAKE A FREAKING HONEYMOON!!!!!

I hope this is just the beginning of things I work towards and accomplish in the next year, but I feel like it’s a good place to start, and I feel like the firstย  set is 100% achievable, the secpnd set can and will happen most weeks of the year, and the third set is 100% work-towards-able–is that a word? Is now. I will not become the pillar of patience in 2012 just because it is a goal, I guarantee it, but I will become more patient.I can’t wait to spend the year checking back in with my goals and check things off the first list as they happen! ๐Ÿ™‚

What do you want to achieve next year? Next month? Today?

Filed Under: Uncategorized · Tagged: fitness, goals, life, running

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