2011--Another New Chapter in Life

According to the Mayan calendar, Hollywood and The National Enquirer, this is the last full year of very existence because, in 2012 we are all going to kiss our behinds good-bye.  Don't have enough savings in your 401(k)?  Don't even worry about it because you won't be around to spend all that money you saved.  Kids' Education?  Only if they are graduating this year do you even have to think about.  Go ahead.  Let them take the next year off, lie around the pool, heck, even travel.  Just make sure they are home in time for the end of the world next year.

Me?  I'm making contigency plans just in case they got it wrong.  So, I'm not spending 2011 making up for lost time and entering a race every weekend while I can.  I'll assume I'll see 2013 and spend the year like any other year and try to race a normal schedule.

2010 took an emotional toll on me where exercising, running and competing took a back burner.  I thought I lost my competitive edge and wondered how to get it back.  It wasn't the love I lost.  It was the heart.  There is only so much you can deal with at the same time.  And, somehow, stressing myself out to train or participate in a race wasn't in the cards.  And, I thought there was something wrong with me.  Turns out there wasn't.  Just being human last year.

So the goals this year are:  Half-marathon sometime in the spring, a tri here and there, marathon in the fall in tribute to those I've lost over the past few years.  I'm not following any training schedule but I am preparing myself to get better.  I'm upping my running mileage during the week, doing dreadmill work, and wanting to get my basement heated to use for exercise useage especially strength training.  That might not be much but it's a heck of a lot better than I've done in awhile.  There is some stuff that lingers from 2010 that I'm still dealing with.  But, I know the times I've been out and exercising, it's been a lot easier to deal iwth.