Fresh Start and Breaking Up The Big Picture With Some Weekly Goals.

I suppose every day can be a fresh start if we want it to be.  We don't have to wait until the New Year to make lofty resolutions or attempt to make our dreams come true.  We don't have to wait until our birthday to celebrate our life and truly pamper ourselves.  Just as we don't have to wait until Valentine's Day and anniversaries to celebrate love.  But these dates certainly are nice to have in place as a reminder that these things do matter...love, life, fresh starts...they matter GREATLY!  They are huge parts of what make life great and I'm thankful for the special occasions to celebrate these things and more.  


As I said, I didn't make 2012 resolutions yet but I still plan on setting goals for my days, weeks, and longer spans of time as I am ready.  Here are just a few short goals and a list of gratitude to start my day before I wake my kids for their first day of school in 2012.  


Thankful for:

• Being up early before everyone else.  Although I couldn't bring myself to run yet, I have enjoyed some personal time.  It is nice to be back on routine. 
• Starting the year with a PR in the 10k even though I expected and wanted a faster time.  It was still a PR and an AG win...reason to celebrate and focus on getting faster.
• The past week of vacation.  I slept until 10 once or twice and I felt like a lazy college kid again (minus the three kids I was responsible for).  
• Fresh starts and goals
• Coffee
• I'm feeling my writing itch return to me.  I've missed it.
• Training is going well.
• Ice to sit on while I type so that I can ice my sore bum.
• A family that is all safe, healthy, and here with me today.  Every day is a gift and it is so easy to take for granted sometimes.  Just takes a few nights of crazy dreams to make me wake up more thankful than ever for just the simple things....the basics.

Motherhood/Personal Goals for THIS WEEK:

• Work on the way I respond to my children.  I've gotten so lazy with this.  The more stressful it gets and the more my kids fight and react in awful ways to each other, the more I find myself reacting in ways that are not so stellar.  They sound just like me!  We model for our children how to respond to stress and frustrating situations.  I'm really needing to get my act together with this one!!  Instead of reacting in a way that involves yelling, talking to them in a nagging and whiney voice, and talking over them, I'm trying hard to respond with a sense of calm and control.  This is so much harder said than done for me.  
• To spend more time with God.
• Read more. This will involve shutting off distractions and finding the time to sit down and really read something.  Right now, I'm into reading mostly nonfiction...things I will learn from and be able to take away from immediately.  A perfect time to do this would be after school where we all sit down together and have a 20 minute reading time. Good modeling for my kids.  However, my 2 year old son might not think this is such a stellar idea.  I might be managing him instead of reading.  Better yet, I suppose reading to him would be a good idea.  Can't get enough of Bear Hunt and Diego.  

Running Goals:

• Haven't officially followed a week of plans in my Run Faster book by Brad Hudson.  I've used the bones of the plan. I like this...adapting a plan to my needs is easier than I thought and I trust myself here.  I like the freedom of being able to switch things around based on my needs and my goal is to keep doing this and being conscious of what I need as an athlete.  This involves listening to my body, thinking ahead, and bouncing ideas off of running friends.
• Race more often.  Although the marathon is my main goal, I do think that there is a certain physical and mental benefit to finding opportunities to race.  However, this involves moving other things around in my plan so that I replace key workouts with the race. Not sure how much I will race but I'm not closing the door to racing just because my plan doesn't call for it.  
• Keep making more time for core work and strength training even if it is a little here and there.  
• Diet awareness!  Being conscious of what I'm stuffing my face with is crucial at this point when I'm trying to run higher mileage.  The past two weeks have been AWFUL and I'm ready to get back on track.  

Amanda