2012 Goals in Review

I set several goals for myself in 2012.  I even wrote them down.  One of them was to keep a journal, which is where I wrote the goals. But that is where the journaling stopped.  But here they are, along with the progress I made.

1.  Run Outside More – Less Treadmill.  Well, I have to say that I hit this one out of the park.  Once we moved to Phoenix, the treadmill had to be an option when the temps were in the triple digits.  But overall, I ran just shy of 700 miles (NOT the results I wanted, but better than 2011) and only 128.7 of them were inside.

2.  Increase Mileage.  Overall, yes.  I ran more in 2012 than I did in 2011.  But I had hoped for better mileage.  I did discover that I do WELL with running twice a day.  And would much rather do two short runs than one long one.  Go figure.  And I increased my “short” runs from 3 miles to 4 and 5 miles.

3.  PR 5K.  HELL TO THE YES!!!!  I knocked quite a bit of time off my 5K PR and broke my 30:00 goal.  I ran a 28:27 and am VERY VERY happy with that.  This AWFUL picture is what it looks like to PR a 5K.

4.  PR Half. I made one attempt at this in February and failed.  Miserably.  But I had a great time with my sister that day.  Later in the year I decided that I didn’t want to race the 13.1 distance and I am still VERY ok with that!  I DID PR my 10K time by over 4 minutes, I think.

5.  Spend Less.  I have to think I did better with this or we wouldn’t have had the money to hire people to pack and move us.  Or the money to move in general.  So I am saying this was a success.

6.  Stop Stockpiling Food.  I thought I was doing better with this.  Especially with the big move. But I cleaned out the cabinets last week and the results were poor.  It will be on my list of goals for 2013 as well.  I just can’t resist a sale at the grocery store!

 

7. Spend Time with Dogs.  I don’t think this is exactly what I meant. I work from home. I am with the dogs all day, every day.  But rather I meant walk them and play with them more.  Walking, yes there definitely has been more of that.  Playing, not really.  I seem to get injured when I play with the dogs.  So walking will have to do.

Overall, not bad.  I will be setting (or resetting) goals for 2013.  Did you set goals for 2012 and how did you do?

Friday: Blog News

Friday was spent in the house.  Except for my run. The hike on Wednesday was a bit hard on the knee, and I could feel its effect on my run Friday.  But run I did.   I LOVED my new New Balance top (thanks Sis!) with the thumb holes and the leggings/tights I received in my PB Body box.

Run: 3 Miles / 31:34

BIG BLOG NEWS!  I am moving to my own domain name and a self-hosted site.  It is mostly setup and things went fairly smoothly.  I am attempting to have WordPress move my subscribers, but if you could have some heart and go to the new site, I will love you forever.  Just in case.

WWW.THEKIDLESSKRONICLES.COM

You are awesome, thank you.

So that was how I spent most of Friday.  Working on the blog move.  And lets be honest, playing Bejeweled Blitz.  Then I made delicious Jambalaya.  And there was a request for brownies.  Which will also become Saturdays breakfast.

The Very Inspiring Blogger Award

First, thank you to Cathy @ OnTheVector.com for nominating me for this award.  I was unclear of the rules at first but now I get it.  So here we go.

The rules for The Very Inspiring Blogger Award

1. Thank the person who nominated you (done)
2. List 7 things about myself (oy, I am bad at this)
3. Nominate 15 bloggers and inform them (I will nominate who I can, might not be 15)

1.  I am slightly (more than slightly) obsessed with orange food. I eat 5 lbs of carrots a week (those big bags from Costco), peaches, nectarines, sweet potatoes.  Even orange gummy bears and tangerine jelly bellys.

2.  I love Costco and Sam’s but do most of my other recreational shopping on the internet.  Amazon is like heaven.

3. I sing really loud in my car.  And I sound just like all the people on the radio.  Amy from Evanescence, Dido, Kelly Clarkson.  And even Taylor Swift.  Sometimes, when I am running to music, I forget that I am not in my car and that other people can hear me and singing slips out.  Oops.

4.  Most days, I don’t really want to run or bike.  Or at least that is how I feel when the alarm goes off at 530am.  But I (almost) always know that I will feel great once I get out there and even better after.  Plus, I really like food (see #1) and beer/wine.  This is a blog about balance after all.

5.  I am addicted to just about any kind of reality TV EXCEPT American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, The Bachelor/Bachelorette, and that one with Khloe Kardashian.  Anything Brave, TLC, A&E, NatGeo, etc is good to me.  Most of what we DVR is considered reality TV.

6.  I am a HUGE sports fan.  Mostly hockey and baseball.  Used to be college basketball but I let that one go when I realized that I am not in college anymore.  And that they don’t serve beer at college basketball games.  I am very excited to (finally) be living in a town that has all major league sports.  Even though hockey is in a lockout.

7.  I pay myself to clean up around my own house.  I used to pay someone else to do it, but not anymore.  And I pay myself to clean up after my husband.  I am not saying he leaves a mess everywhere, but I pay myself to clean up and it helps to keep the nagging and resentment to a minimum.  I don’t know what else to say about that except that it works for me.  And that money will be used to pay off my car early.

Now I am nominating the following:

Heather @ runeatplayblog.com

Cely @ RunningofftheReeses.com

Katie @ RunThisAmazingDay.com

Andrea@ Andreaoutloud.com

I will leave them each a comment and let them know!

Sloth Sunday: BALLS (foot and meat)

Today is Sloth Sunday and started with the usual bevy of chores.  If you can call that sloth.

And then I found a recipe on Pinterest that I just had to find. And since I was going to my sister’s to watch Cardinals football, it was the perfect chance.  The site called them meatball bubble biscuits.  I can them Meatball Marinara Biscuits.  Just call them little balls of awesomeness.  And EASY.  These will become a must-have at any sports-viewing gathering.

And I finally dipped into the daiquiris.  YUM.  Definitely need more rum next time.  But these are good enough for now.

I need to figure out how to fit my miles into only 4 days this week.  Not sure a long run is appropriate given the half marathon is in 2 weeks.  And can I really get through the half marathon in one piece?  Yes, of course.  But will it be any fun, or at least educational?  Educational maybe.  On pace, fluids, nutrition, training progress.  Still on the fence about downgrading to the 5k though.

It is official.  My site has been retweeted by Childfree Online.  Let’s see what that does for traffic (and content).

(Lack of) Focus

I was reading through lists of fitness blogs and healthy living blogs when it occurred to me that this blog is really all over the place.  It started just over a year ago as a way to find some direction and deal with what I was calling a career crisis.  But it lacks focus.  Just like my career.  Go figure.

The idea was originally to chronicle what is was like to live a full life without kids.  But that seems to turn into complaining about kids.  Or parents.  And I just don’t want to complain that much.  Not out loud anyway.  I have lots of time in my life to workout, go to baseball and hockey games or even just read. But I know people with kids that make time for all of those things as well.

Is it a running or fitness blog?  I certainly do talk about my runs.  Mostly how bad they are.  And I am training and working out  just about ll the time.  But I wouldn’t say I focus on that.

Is it a travel blog?  We love to travel and I enjoy sharing where we have been.  But I don’t know that we travel enough to make this just about travel.  And we do tend to revisit the same places over and over.

Is is a food blog?  Good god no.  Or my pictures, when I remember to include them, would be better.  I love to bake and have no trouble sharing the recipes.  But I am about the worst and most boring eater in the world (no low fat baking here).  I LOVE me some chicken wings and ranch dressing.  And I can’t seem to say no to an animal cracker.  And I eat 5 lbs of carrots a week.  I must having an eating disorder (insert sarcasm).

There are two things I do every day (well, more than two but those pictures are not going on the blog).  Workout (of some sort) and eat.  Except Sloth Sunday.   Which used to be Mimosa Sunday.   Anyway, that will be the focus.  I need to find the focus in my real life to push my workouts and clean up my eating.  So there you go.  If we are traveling WHILE I am eating and running, that will find its way here as well.

And we are kidless.  On purpose. And happy.  And we remember most days that we get to do a lot of fun stuff because we don’t need a babysitter or to pay for daycare.  Get over it.

Tomorrow, I begin again.