Adjusted Reality

2012 has really started off opposite of most of last year. Let’s look at 2 of my major goals:

1.  Lose weight.  More specifically, 1600 calories on all days but long run day.  No sugar.  Mostly organic.  Keeping the ratios pretty even.  Basically, good, clean eating. For most of December, I struggled HARD with 1600 calories.  This week, I rocked it out of the park.  To the point where some days, I was eating more at night to get to 1600 on purpose.

While I don’t necessarily think that I should be shoving food down my mouth if I’m not really hungry, I want to get good data if I’m losing at this calorie range and not just my normal TRY TO EAT AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE without going insane and then get frustrated. So yeah – no sugar.  Very little nutritionally void food.  Mostly organic/good quality.  Only out to eat 4 times last week.  Around 1600 each day, 2400 on long run day.  I feel so much more fabulous than I did this time last week.

Weight is 178, while it’s up from my last official weigh in, is actually down from the damage I did on vacation.

2.  Marathon Training Most of 2011 (at least the last half), it was all about “my training is going awesome but I can’t get my eating habits together”.  Sadly, I’m just about opposite this week.  I missed one workout (my swim – not critical, but still, not good).  I had to take my 10 miler at planned marathon pace down to 6 miles due to time constraints, and worst of all – I couldn’t get my long run done – I only did 14.5 instead of the 15 minimum I had required, and the last mile + of that was walking.

Now I’m in a bit of a pickle.  My goal was the Austin Marathon in 6 weeks.  I have thus far done one terrible 18 miler with much walking, one 16 miler, one 15 miler, two 14 milers, about 5 half marathon distance runs, and probably another 10 double digit runs.  My during-the-week training has been spotty as well. Most importantly, I’m not having success with my longer-than-half runs, my calves, hammies, and glutes seize up like whoa and running is painpainpain no matter how slow I take it or how many walk breaks I give myself.  If I simply was undertrained and was feeling good during runs I’d probably go for it, but this feels like there may be a problem.

I’m trying to remember how getting from 10k to 12 miles felt, but I really break down somewhere after I hit double digits. The super frustrating part is that I remember some of my long runs for halfs I really trained for wasted me for the whole rest of the day, maybe 2.  While I’m in major pain during the latter halves of these runs, after I walk, stretch, and get some food in me, I’m feeling great and could probably finish the mileage.  Either I’ve somehow lessened my ability to tolerate pain and uncomfortableness, or this is worse.

This week I’m loading up on potassium and calcium, and will attempt to take in more calories before and during the run, and see if that gets me through the 20 miles.  If not, then I have some hard choices.  Enter the proverbial pro/con list.

PRO running 26.2:

-I set the goal, I want to follow it through.

-I have a month set aside to rest and recover.  This is the right timing in the year with my other goals I want to accomplish.

-It’s one step closer to ironman.  If I can’t run a marathon, I will never do an IM.

-I want the silly little decal on my car.

-It’s proof that I can indeed do anything I set my mind to.

-It’s going to be HARD.  I haven’t done a race that’s really hard besides the arbitrary standards of time I set on myself for a long while.  Since my Olympic tri in 2010 for sure.  Everything else has just been either chasing a PR or for fun.

-5 hours of running is a good experience if I want to consider 6-7 hours on my feet for the half iron and/or century

-Not doing it after I said it so publicly feels like giving up.  I’m convinced y’all will think just a tiny bit less of me if I wuss out on this.

-I’ve been training for it since October.  If I wasn’t going to bother, I should have spent the time resting.  What a waste!

-This would be false start #2 for marathon training for me,  I’d like to see it through.

-I’m not trained up for a half marathon PR right now, so what’s the point of even running it?

CON (running 13.1):

-Supporting Joel to the finish line on his 2nd half marathon

-Running a distance I know literally is just another weekend jaunt and I can move onto other things sooner than a long marathon recovery.

-Another lesson to myself that every race is not just about Quix PR’ing it.

-Less chance of hurting myself means I can start tri training earlier

-I hate training in the cold, less time I have to be out during crappy cold weather! (Yes, I would much rather heat train – I’m silly like that…)

-Getting as comfortable as I am with double digit runs and running 4 halfs this season is still a huge accomplishment.  I’ve always run 13.1 miles and threw a fit and stopped running for a month and taken 6 months to even want to attempt a long run again.  A double digit run is now just another Saturday now.

-I will have another chance at a marathon in the fall.  After I run the half iron in October, I can bank on all that stamina and training from the summer and probably do the same thing I did with the olympic and the half marathon 6 weeks later in 2010.  Also, RnR San Antonio is perfect weather, a nice fast and flat course (which Austin isn’t), and I really liked it in 2010. (However, I was considering banking my endurance and doing a century in October.  Can I do both?  Will I be so OVER training by October that I don’t want to do any of this? Will taking the pressure off myself earlier in the year help lengthen my post season motivation?)

-I don’t feel ready for the marathon.  I’ve never entered a new distance feeling as if I had so far to go from training to race.  I don’t feel as if I have earned the right to do it.

-Unless the nutrition really is the key and I have a stellar 20 miler this Saturday, do I really want my first marathon to be mostly memories of being in pain?   Maybe it’s worth a few false starts to grow more comfortable with longer distances.

-Will I really feel accomplished and worthy of calling myself a marathoner if I just drag myself across the finish line in what feels like not a respectable time?  I don’t want to just finish a marathon, I want to run a marathon.  I’m not sure if I can do that yet.

-I don’t really have love and passion for the distance.  It’s really just a stepping stone to do something more (Ironman).

-If it was between a marathon and a tri, I’d have dropped the race like a hot potato.  This really is because I feel like doing this is the most efficient use of my time to improve for tri season.

-If I just make this call, all the stress about training schedules goes out the door.  I can start ramping up my biking and swimming NOAWWWW which is all I wanna do.  I am the sick puppy that wants to go out and buy my trainer NOAWWWW (yes, again for emphasis) and cycle through movie and tv marathons.

-I may just have to accept the cold hard fact that 178 lbs is heavier than my body wants to be to do the miles in a manner which does me proud.  Not that I’m an advocate of waiting until you’re perfect to accomplish your goals, but doing this after taking off 10-20 lbs later in the year (please, let that be reality!!!) might be a game changer in terms of how the miles feel to me.

So in summary, I have a lot of thinking to do.  Most people I’ve talked to say to not do the marathon, but I just can’t shake the feeling that I’m being weak willed about it and trying to cover it up by making it sound like I’m making the smart choice, and really, I just need to push my boundaries and buck up and do something REALLY HARD.  I may be longing for tri season and not feeling a lot of run love right now, but isn’t that always the case for me knee-deep in a running training cycle?  Right about now all I want to do is anything BUT run (but then the light at the end of the tunnel appears near race day and wheeee!!! the love returns in spades).

So yeah, my thinker is going overtime.  I’m also trying to think of what is best for weight loss, but it seems like my eating is pretty well in check and once I accepted that training more != the ability to eat crap and/or not be stringent on how many calories I’m taking in (make sure it’s an appropriate level), I don’t think it matters either way. So, if you were in my position, what would you do?  Will I regret the race I ran without full and complete feelings of preparation, or will I regret not taking the chance?

Five years ago (geez, was it really FIVE YEARS!!!  Holy crap!!!)… erm, wait, not the point, let me start again.

In Jan 2007, I awoke from my bed in San Diego morbidly obese at 265 lbs (estimated with rate of loss – I didn’t get a scale until 250s but anyhoo… I’m easily distractable today so expect lots of parens…).  My main priorities in life were work, work, work, and figuring out the easiest way to get through life without moving my body much.

Yes, I’m making light, but seriously, my idea of a perfect weekend was not leaving the house in my pajamas, moving only from the bed to our office and to the couch.  We were in a 600 sq foot apartment, so it wasn’t very far.  I wore stretchy skirts and shirts so I could avoid the plus size stores.  XXL at mervyns and target were my friends.  If you didn’t shop in the plus size stores or sections, you weren’t fat, right?  Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt folks…

However, that river ends.  Late 2006, we ended up taking a trip north to San Francisco for a friend’s wedding which necessitated jeans.  I didn’t own any.  I went and tried on 16s, then 18s, then was shocked to find that 24s fit me (and were even TIGHT).  Well, I certainly couldn’t be that plus size, so I resolved when I got back to really do it this time, buck the odds working in the video game industry (long hours sitting on my ass and unhealthy crunch food, oh my!), and lose weight!  Not the most epic reason for the epiphany, but whatever works, right?

I also resolved to work a 40 hour week instead of the 80-100 I was imposing on myself.  I was doing so much fast forward it wasn’t funny, and it never got to the good part when everything was sunshine and rainbows.

Early 2007, I got a good start taking down 25 lbs and then went on vacation and job hunted – once I wasn’t so caught up in my own work involvement and drama, I realized that I needed to move on (amicably), both professionally and location-wise.  This stalled weight loss.  Always in my life, anything that wasn’t optimal conditions stalled weight loss.

I relocated, I rejobbed, and BAM! My first week, I got a stomach bug that took me down 10 lbs in 5 days.  At that point, I had made peace with my 240 lb-ish self until “things settled down”, but some old jeans at my 230-ish self fit.  Of course, when the weight came back on and they didn’t fit anymore, I was sorta sadface, and thought, “Hmmm, there must be a way to do this without eating only Gatorade and saltines…”

After research, I found www.sparkpeople.com (I’m not paid, just a fan).  This was the “hacker diet” I had read and liked the idea of, without having to mess with my own spreadsheets.  I decided I would give spark a month and do whatever it said.  Looking back at what I was eating back then, it was utter junk, but it was LESS utter junk – in general around 1200-1500 most days, more on weekends.  Seriously though – how did I eat a PIECE OF FRUIT or a 100 CAL YOPLAIT for breakfast?  I would FAINT DEAD AWAY on that nowadays…

Also, sparkpeople said to do 20 mins of cardio 3 times per week, and 15 mins of weights 3 times per week.  I remember thinking “geez, this is a lot, how will I make this a habit?  This isn’t doable forever…”  I elipticaled Tu/W/Th to give myself maximum vacation from the “suck” that was cardio and did weights M/W/F.  On Wednesdays, I had to do a 35 minute workout.  This was SO MUCH TIME to dedicate.  I didn’t enjoy one bit of it, but spark said to do it so I did.

After one month, I had lost just about the same amount I did being sick, and I felt great!  Progress is the best motivator, so I kept at it.  I knew I had a long while to go, so I just dug in and kept going.

I wish I could share with you what a struggle it was to go from 240 to 170.  I would love to give you a dramatic play by play of what I gave up and my journey from junk food junkie to organic goddess, but that’s just not how it played out.  I spent August 2007 to August 2008 eating pretty much the same things, just less of them, and making myself do cardio and weights 3-4 times per week.  The scale went down pretty much every week, sometimes 0.2 lbs, sometimes 2.0, but I rarely had a gain or maintain week.  Once I got the inertia going, it was almost effortless.  I lost 70 lbs just by counting calories, most of the time keeping them under 1500 with some splurge-y days, and doing said workout schedule above.  I still smoked, albeit less and less, and I still got drunk, but less often, I still ate cake, but smaller pieces, and still ate tacos plates, but had the rest of my day healthy.

Racing was but a glimmer in my eye, and my only real goal was to make the scale go down, but somewhere in there I found a little joy and feeling of accomplishment in the workouts themselves.  And down it went until I got stuck.

Around 170 I had a bit of a plateau, but I attributed it it over a year of steady weight loss and just being TIRED of it.  I took a few months to maintain and give myself a break, and then refocused in Dec 2008 and continued the loss to April 2009 when I hit my low of 150.2.

April 2009 was also the month I started to train for my first half marathon.  I had run a 5k and got hooked.  I saw a “train for a hlaf marathon” plan in a magazine and figured “why not”.  I did another 5k and then a 10k before the race.  By the time I ran the race, I was 155 – one cannot train for a half marathon on 1200-1500 calories, and I didn’t count calories.  After two years of restriction, I’m pretty sure I just went crazy.  Can’t say that I looked anything but awesome though…

Besides about 2-3 weeks of pre-wedding crash diet where I got back down to 152 (and then spent a few days partying in Vegas pre-wedding, I’m lucky my wedding dress fit, heh), I’d never see the low 150s again.  By the time I ran my second half in Feb 2010, I was just about 160.  By the time I ran my third half and got through my first tri season in Nov 2010, I was 165.  I didn’t like the trend, but I still liked the way I looked in the mirror and loved what my body could do!  I PR’d a half marathon!  I was a triathlete!  I was unstoppable!

Last year, I’m not sure WTF happened.  I gained some weight when I hurt my back and couldn’t do much (170), and actually gained another 5 lbs trying to figure out my nutrition over the summer that never really came back off.  It’s a bizarre feeling having your insides feel awesome and healthy and athlete-y and having your outsides just keep.getting.bigger.  I can also credit just not being ready to put in the “do whatever it takes”.  I wanted cake more than I wanted to lose weight.  We raced A LOT this year and did a lot of long weekend training.  With that, however, came a lot of “OMG I just spent 2 hours on the bike and ran a 5k I’m going to eat and drink all the things for the rest of the weekend”.  I am living proof that you can absolutely outeat your training.  A lot.  However, I PR’d my sprint tri (did 3 total), I ran 2 half marathons, helped support Zliten becoming a full on triathlon and race addict like I am, and did other various and sundry 5ks, mud runs, and duathlons (PR’d that too!).  2011 was an awesome year – just not on the weight loss front.

Here we are at 2012.  I feel like something has awoken.  That patient determination, that something is wrong enough that I’ll do what it takes even if it’s hard (why I couldn’t do this at 5-10 lbs gained, I don’t know).  That I know I can’t just lose this weight in a month.  That I need to make some hard choices sometimes and focus on priorities.  That I probably need to continue tracking my food and calories for a while, and it may be doubly important during training season to make sure I’m not over/under eating.  That I’ll always feel like I can outtrain my food and it’s JUST NOT THE CASE.  That it’s unfair that a lot of people can eat more junk food than me and look like uber athletes.  This is my reality and I can accept it.

It’s not that I eat one slice of pizza and gain 10 lbs.  I can indulge for a birthday or a vacation or even because it’s Saturday and I’ve been good all week.  I’m not destined to a life of militant abstination from anything but veggies and chicken.  However, it has to be the exception and not the rule.

I’m starting the game over, the wakeup call I had in Jan 2007, but this time, the game has changed.

-MORE DIFFICULT: There are some foods off limits.  Instead of just a calorie goal, I also have my ratios (3-4 protein, 1-2 nuts, 4 oils, 1 grain, 1 carrot/corn/potato, 1 dairy), PLUS I’m trying to eat as much organic, non-GMO, no hormones/antibiotic, and 8-ingredients-or-less foods.  In 2007, my requirement was just less foods.

-LESS DIFFICULT: I’ve proven to myself that I could lose weight, fairly recently.  I haven’t only lost weight due to starvation or an accident.  I know it’s possible.  I just have to be willing to do whatever it takes.

-MORE DIFFICULT: Before, if I was feeling hungry, I could just go smoke, or get caffeinated, or just deal with it.  However, hunger made me kind of brain dead and weak.  You can’t get 100% out of training hungry and having given up smoking and caffeine (both for the most part), I have to really manage my hunger so it’s not crippling.  I have yet to have a day where 1600 calories is REALLY REALLY not enough, but I know that day will come, and I will need to figure out a better coping mechanism.

-LESS DIFFICULT: I only have to lose 25 or so, rather than OVER 100.  While needing to lose 100 lbs really impressed upon myself the seriousness of my condition, it also was a daunting, multi-year task.  If I really buckle down and stay on the straight and narrow, I could be onto the maintain part of this process by summer.

The point of this is to both to…

a) remind myself that I’ve come a long way, and if I can lose 100 lbs, anyone can.  It just takes the full and true WANT to do it.

b) focus on the task at hand.  After being in denial for a year or 2, and a long winter’s nap, I’m awake.  I’m ready.  Let’s get er done.

So yes, time to wake up and smell the coffee before I’m 250 lbs again and wondering what happened.  Starting next week, expect accountability and progress!

While I’m not exactly a slacker all year long or anything, it’s time to join the resolutioners and emerge from the long winter’s nap I’ve been taking and really hit it hard.  I have some extra in my middle to take care of and some marathon training to catch up on.

Last week I started training again – not with any speed or flair, but I got 3 solid, albeit SLOW runs done, even a double digit on Saturday.  This week, I go whole hog – back to complete and total healthiness, and training as much back to normal as I can while I cleanse my poor, junk food addled body.

The January Plan:

-No sugar.  No sweet treats, no deserts, etc, unless it’s fuel during a run.  Again, not going crazy trying to eliminate every source of hidden sugar from my diet but I’m trying to cut out the easy stuff.  Also, it’s easier to say no when I’m completely abstaining.  Exception is, of course, fruit, proteins, smoothies, and protein bars (which are very low sugar anyway) in a pinch.  If I’m freaking out, I will allow myself some homemade frozen yogurt w/stevia.

-1600 calories per day, minus long run day.  Long run day is 1600 + allowance for a reasonable amount of booze (~2000 total).  If I want to drink any other day, it has to come out of the 1600.  I’m treating this like a bank – once my calories are gone, they are gone.

-Continuing with nutritionist recommended 1 grain per day, 1 potato/corn/carrot per day, 1 dairy per day, 3-4 proteins, 1-2 legumes, and 1 nut.  Calories are king here, but attempting to stay with these ratios as closely as possible.

-Also continuing with the organic/grass fed/no hormones/no antibiotics thing, and trying to get back to the “less than 9 ingredients” thing whenever possible and it makes sense.

This week specifically:

-3 runs – speedwork (1k, 2k, 1k, 1k w/400m rest in between), tempo – 10 mile at planned marathon pace, and 15 miles.

-2 other sessions – DDR and either a bike or a swim.

-stretch after each session

-do my little plio7 strength routine each morning

I’ve got my groceries planned and we’re precooking chicken for lunches this week.  I’ll also be batch cooking *something* each weekend so we have some EZ lunches and dinners ready.  I’ve also conceded that keeping some decent frozen dinners around (like kashi, amy’s, etc) might be the lesser of two evils rather than getting takeout or going for other easy and less healthy options.  And I’m pretty sick of soup, I need more variety.

So yeah, the goal for January is trying to be boring for the most part, get some good healthy eating and training under my belt, consistency and some solid progress.  The only plans we have are the gorilla run (possibly) and Zliten’s first half marathon – 3M – at the end of the month.  I know I can’t be boring until I’m at my goal weight, but it will give me a good start.

Being that I’ve just eaten crap-tastically (for me) for a good chunk of December, and the fact that it’s TOM, I think I’ll skip the weigh in for this moment, and take it later in the week once I’m back into the swing of things.

Today: so far, so good.  One day, one week, one lb, and one mile at a time.  Let’s do this!

Before we pop the bubbly at midnight, here’s what I hope to accomplish next year!

1.  Take care of this weight problem that keeps creeping up.  Beyond my Zliten, and my job, this is what I need to deal with in 2012.  Continue to work with the nutritionist and take whatever steps necessary to end 2012 lower than 2011.  Starting the year at 1600 calorie avg, attempting to stick with my current ratios (1 grain, 1 veggie b, 1 dairy), should be interesting to see where I end up…  I’m starting on the typical Jan 2nd and will be really giving it a good solid effort.  If I can get a month of routine and weight loss under my belt, perhaps the rest of the year will go better.  Also – do not sacrifice quality of food.  Organic, pesticide free, hormone free, etc etc whenever possible.

2.  Work/industry goal:  While I enjoy what I do, I can see myself easily working my way up into more and more senior management, further and further away from the creative parts of making a game.  I need to get back there.  To really be inspired, I must play.  I’ve found myself having urges to play games this year, but the laptop I had was 5 years old and couldn’t play anything modern.  This has been rectified for Christmas – I have a nice, shiny, new lappy.   I don’t want to feel like I hold on to my gamer card de facto because I work in the industry.  Sacrifice to get this done: internet dorking time.  This website is probably not going to be updated any more frequently than it was this year.  Sorry/you’re welcome.

To that end I will:

-Dedicate one evening per week to reading, and one evening per week of gaming.

-Come up with one good, well thought out, game pitch, whether it’s something I take to work, or something that’s just for me.

3.  Race/workout goals:

-Finish a marathon, a century ride, and a half ironman.  I was going to go smaller on this and had written down “complete at least one new distance” to give myself an out, but in my head, this is what I have planned.  No sense in not putting it out there.  If all 3 don’t happen because I had to make a smart decision for my mental and/or physical health to drop to a shorter race or drop out, so be it.

-Note that with this goal, I’m NOT making the next goal to PR everything.  When I race a race, the goal is to always PR, but I’m really pushing the distance envelope this year, which means I’m ok sacrificing speed.  The only exception: sprint tris.

-Really concentrate on my bike times.  This is the best place for me to improve my tri times.

-Complete all TX Tri Series races (6 tris in 5 months).  PR at least 1.

-Take at least 3 months of the year not in training (off season) to mentally and physically rest.

-Stretch after every workout.

-Strength train 2x week (catch another crunchtime class at lunch?)

-Let’s try this again.  Run a race somewhere outside Texas.  I’ll have some opportunities next year, very likely San Diego.

-Volunteer at more races.  I was able to volunteer once this year and while I think it’s what got me sick for vacation, it was a great experience.

4.  Start one major house renovation this year.  Likely, the windows.  First priority, the kitchen windows that have no seals anymore.  This has moved up from just a one liner to a line item.  We’ve spent way too long looking at some major things in the house that need changing and being lazy.  If we don’t do this, something else just as major that’s on the list (counters, bathroom, etc).

5.  Yet again, more one liners:

-Get the office set up as an office/craft room, not a junk store room (we’re halfway there, it’s cleaned out, we just need to look for some furniture and decide exactly how we want to rearrange it and such).

-Decide what to do with the savings now that we have some, that doesn’t incude something at 0.000145% like our savings account.

-Do more batch cooking so having healthy lunches and dinners available is easier.  It’s not my favorite thing to do but I’m going to get really sick of Amy’s and Annie’s real quick.

-Learn to sew. So I can modify my horrible men sized race tees. And maybe making skirts. And other stuff.

-Learn the party rock anthem dance.  Every day I’m shufflin….day I’m shufflin….

Here’s what I wanted to do last year, and how I did at actually *doing* it.

Resolution 1.  First and foremost, I need to get a handle on my free time.  I spend most of my weeknights just dorking on social media because it’s easy, I haven’t had a chance to look at it all day – and then all of a sudden it’s bedtime and I’ve done nothing.  I’d like to start with a goal to not have my nose in my lappy all the time.  I’d like to make one weeknight per week a reading night (no laptop after dinner), and 1 day per week gaming (again, no laptop after dinner).  I need to accept that I don’t need to read EVERY tweet or facebook update if I don’t have time.  I love keeping in touch with people, but if they care that much, they can @ me or tag me.

I’ve done *better* here, but there is definitely room for improvement.  I’ve read more this year than I have since I was in college.  I’ve taken some nights where I close my laptop, turn off the tv, and do something else.  But I also accepted this year that sometimes there is not enough time (when I have less than 2 hours from get home time to bed time) or I don’t have the mental capacity after a tough day at work and tough workout to do anything else than just veg.  I am a little more tied to Facebook and Twitter than I’d like, but it’s less of a compulsion than just an intentional timewaster.

Resolutin2.  Race goals –

-I’d like a new half marathon PR (goal – 2:05).  I’d love a sub 2 hour, but improvement is all I care about…
Wasn’t in the cards this year.  I ran 2 halfs, neither were PR-worthy but just for training.

-I’d also like to feel that I could run 10 miles at any time (do at least 1 double digit run per month)…
The first part of this year? Nope.  August on?  Yep.  Each time I grow my distance from 10k to double digits it gets a lot easier, so it’s probably not necessary to feel like I can just bust out 10.

-Do another sprint and olympic triathlon, PR at least 1….
Only did sprints, which was an intentional choice.  Major PRs, getting better each race (I took 11 minutes off last year’s PR, and the bike distance was 3 miles longer, so effectively like a 25 minute decrease in time).  I decided to focus on my short game and it paid off!

-I’d like to attack my 5k, 5 mile, and/or 10k PR…
Wasn’t in the cards this year.  I suck at running 5ks lately, while I ran a great 5 miler it wasn’t a PR, and didn’t run a 10k.

-Do a trail half marathon/duathalon in one weekend…
This was a non-starter.  I realized I needed a mountain bike, which wasn’t on the docket.  Maybe someday, and this race is still on my bucket list, but for now, I’m enjoying road biking.

-Do each workout in the new tri training book at least once…
Once I started to work about the short game, I didn’t always have an hour to dedicate on each sport per workout.  I’ll pick this up again next year.  I did all the pre-season ones though!

-Do a destination race outside Texas (any distance)…
I tried really hard with this one, but vacation schedules got all mucked up and I never made it anywhere beyond Texas.  However, I raced in Conroe, Flatonia, Rocky Hill Ranch, Kerrville, Azle, Cedar Creek, and Spicewood.  Nothing more than 4 hours away, but 5 of them are new places I never would have visited without my racing habit.

-Adapt these as I see fit next year… the goal is mainly to get better at the distances I’ve do…
So far so good, looking to expand next year though!

Resolution 3.  Weight Loss/Maintenance goals – get down to and maintain 150 by summer. Once i get down to 15o, never go above 155… that will allow me to fit in all my clothes, still have flexibility to gain a little during race training that I can easily lose after, and once I get there, feel super fit, awesome, and hot while not being a weight I have to only eat celery to maintain.

Nope!  However, I’m getting help and working on my nutrition.  I’ve not taken any weight off, but I have been feeling a lot more capable and my body feeling like I can tackle more, so that’s good.  We’ve started counting calories again but also using the ratios, and I have a feeling this is the silver bullet (though it’s HARD, it’s at least something concrete to do).  While I can’t really say WHEN I’ll solve the problem, I won’t give up trying.

Resolution 3b.  Continue with strength training, yoga, and things that don’t immediately contribute to torching tons of calories or race training but definitely helps build definition, makes me look thinner, and most importantly, helps me improve my race times.

Ehhhh…. when I haven’t been injured, I have at least ONCE a week done weights (crunchtime class).  I have endeavoured to do at least one more session but I’d say it’s at about a… 25% success rate.  Yoga, I did horrible at.  Once I injured my back I stopped going to class (except for the once I went back and REINJURED myself).  This fall I’ve done a little better about taking some time to stretch, but still, I should be stretching each and every workout and I’m just not.

Resolution 4.  Continue with my job in the same position at the same company continuing to improve, grow, and become a better producer capable of handling more things with more ease.  I have much more specific goals here but that’s about all I’ll say publicly.

Yes indeedy.  It’s been a hell of a year volume-wise, I may be sprouting more grey hairs than I did last year at this time, but I believe I’ve definitely grown and made progress as a manager, and my game has definitely been successful because of it.

Resolution 5.  More one liners:

-Smoke less.  Continue to allow smokes only with alcohol, and I’d like to get to the point where I can take it or leave it.
A little, yes.  Not sure if there has been much progress with the number.  My one triumph this year: I can have a few drinks in a social situation where it is not convenient/appropriate to smoke, and not really want one.  Wine especially.

-Less hangovers.  I hate getting one of my weekend days eaten being laid out on the couch.  I just need to quit just BEFORE that switch flips where it’s on like donkey kong and all of a sudden it’s 10am and I feel like death warmed over.
I’ve gotten better at this later in the year.  I’ve been better at not going too crazy this fall, and found that just a touch of caffiene before bed or right when I get up cures most ills.

-Pay off the car (January), pay off Zliten’s college loan (August), and continue to meet our savings goal of 1k per month.
Car paid off.  Loan almost paid off (more due to forgetting to pay rather than not having the money – this should be taken care of early next year).  Savings goal highly exceeded.

-Visit one new city I’ve never seen before.  Denver? NYC? Seattle? Portland?
Technically, yes.  Not counting all the new places we visited racing, we saw Roatan (Honduras), Belize City, Houston, Port Aransas (Texas), and Montego Bay (Jamaica).  However, I think what I was going for is a non-Texas in the US city.  This I didn’t do, but I can’t really complain with the other trips we took.

-Begin one new major house renovation.  Failing that, start planning and budgeting for it and establish a timeline (windows, bathrooms, counters, etc).
We got estimates for the windows.  We decided to get more and find a place that doesn’t just do replacement windows, because it would make us lose 3 inches on each side of the beautiful windows we fell in love with in the kitchen.  Non-replacement windows are expensive.  So we need to do a little more planning.  Hoping to undertake this next year.

-Find something that makes me happy that is not goal oriented.  Some people knit.  Not to be the best knitter and to make x scarves per week and improve by March to be onto stripes instead of solids, but simply because they enjoy the act of it.  Same with Zliten and reading.  I’d like to find mine.
I don’t know that I made any progress here.  I didn’t really concentrate on this, I just really tried to shut off the competition and the drive when I’m not either a) working or b) training.  Maybe that’s a good thing?

-Continue to do things that frighten/excite/challenge me (like trapeze lessons or flight lessons) and continue to pick out of the hat – the whole life goal of one truly memorable thing per month.
January: Ran in Austin in a Gorilla Suit
February: Visited Roatan, Belize City, and Cozumel
March: Did Warrior Dash, saw the biggest aquariam ever, and saw NASA
April: Rookie Tri (Zliten’s first tri!)
May: Our first splash and dash, Yelp Goes Gaga party (aka, an excuse to leave the house in fancy sunglasses, a feather boa, and a tiara)
June: Did a haunted tour of Austin in a Hearse Limo, Pflugerville Tri
July: Saw Judah Frielander at Cap City Comedy Club, took back the summer and started training outside
August: Yelp Finn and Porter Fancy Party
September: Port Aransas Trip, Six Flags minus all the lines with M and her awesome company
October: Kerriville Tri PR, 1st place AG at Dash for Dads 5k
November: Second place AG at Azle Lake Half Marathon
December: Jamaica (and probably much more by the end of the vacation)

…some are bigger than others, but definitely something awesome each month.

I had big goals this year, and I hit quite a few of them, missed a few, and abandoned some.  Although I have not made the progress I want in some important areas (weight, some PRs, some personal growth, some projects), I definitely have had a year to be proud of.

NOTE: Pictures are not from an episode of Hoarders, but from our very own “office”.  Since we have laptops and have never really needed an office (the living room is our office), it became the storage room for junk we didn’t know where to put or didn’t have a place for.  One spoiler goal for 2012 is to make it into an actual, usable space and we got a jump on it yesterday.  Here is the after:

Closet organization instead of piles of boxes spewing forth…

There’s carpet in there now, and a usable desk!  There’s still a long way to go until it’s actually set up the way we like and everything is put away completely and set up properly, but we’re much closer after a solid afternoon and evening of work!

Goals for 2012 coming up sometime before, well, 2012.  How was your 2011?