What a year it's been! I'm having fun reading peoples' year-in-review posts on Facebook as well as reading peoples' goals for next year on blogs, Instagram and Twitter. Social Media....so much fun and such a time suck at times ;-). Honestly, I do get a lot of good from social media. While it is in no way a substitute for face to face interaction, in my opinion it's great to be able to connect with friends near and far and to keep up with their lives, adventures, hardships and triumphs.
On my secret society/running group's facebook group page, I posted my goals for the coming year but thought I would write up a quick blog post regarding my goals and general outlook for 2015...more for my own records than anything! I do love coming back to this little blog to remind myself of where I've been and where I hope to be.
One of my biggest personal goals for the coming year is keeping a better training log (Day 1...DONE!). Clint and some of our friends are diligent about uploading data to Garmin Connect. I have an account...but rarely use it. I love reading other peoples' reports on there, but for whatever reason stink at recording my own. I've used Training Peaks in the past (2013 when I was training for my first iron-distance tri) and I've dabbled with Strava. I just can't get myself to be consistent with any of it. I am, though, somewhat jealous when I read peoples' mileage totals for 2014.Truth is...I have NO idea what my totals are! I would like to actually know next year at this time, though, so I've decided to buy and used a paper journal. We'll see how that goes :-). I generally genuinely enjoy journaling so hopefully I roll with it.
Looking back through my Instagram and Facebook pages, though, I see that while
I stink at keeping record of mileage/training numbers, I do a pretty good job of documenting my racing memories with pictures. Here's a brief year-in-review (swim-bike-run related) in pictures:
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| March: I met many of my new Rev3 teammates at our Summit in Virginia! |
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| May: I ran a half marathon at my undergraduate institution, Augustana, with my good friend Aaron Van Lauwe! |
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| May: I had a blast racing the Oly tri in Knoxville with a bunch of Rev3 teammates. |
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| May: Some awesome friends accompanied me to Knoxville where we hung out and raced. |
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May: Clint accompanied me to Wisconsin Dells where we participated in a preview ride of the
freaking HARD Rev3 Dells course |
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| June: My good friends Chuck and Dave came to stay with me in Normal and raced my local favorite tri Tri-Shark with me |
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| June: Enjoying the bike course at Tri-Shark! |
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| June: My sister Megan and I went for a run near her home with her sweet daughter Macy in tow (runs with these two are among my favorites; I only wish we could do it more often!) |
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| June: One of my favorite training rides this summer was one with Katie and Katie! |
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| June (and July and August!): I volunteered with friends at weekly Kids Run for Fun events...watching these kids run was one of my favorite parts of summer for sure. |
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| June: Shenanigans with Clint, Andy and Gary prior to spectating them at local race the Steamboat Classic in Peoria, IL |
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| June: This may appear to be just an "ordinary" four-mile training run to some, but this was the training run (authored by Coach Clint!) during which I realized I really CAN push harder than I tend to. |
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| June: Trail running with Clint! Prior to this summer, my "trail running" was limited to one fall race each year. This summer, though, I came to appreciate and enjoy training out on the trails. |
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| June: Lubing up practice swim participants with Rev3 teammates at Rev3 Dells was a blast. |
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| June: My sister and I with our podium medals at Rev3 Dells after our HOT relay experience. |
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| June: Bestie Jillian and I prior to an area group ride, Pedaling for Kicks. |
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| July: Clint and I prior to Park 2 Park, a yearly tradition on the 4th of July for many BloNo area runners (we ended up doing 14 miles this day including warm up, cool down and an extra trail run later! :)) |
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| July: On a solo training ride I found this little sick stray kitty and carried him 8 miles in my cycling jersey as I rode back to my car! Nicknamed "Tri-Kitty" for a bit, I nursed him back to health with some PowerBar Performance Energy Blends. He has found a new home with my sister and her husband and daughter! |
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| July: Group runs with the Often Running crew were definite highlights of my summer. In addition to being certifiable nutjobs ;), these guys are pretty amazing runners who have pushed me to be better! |
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| July: The Bix7 in Davenport will always be a favorite of mine. This was my 11th experience there and Clint's 2nd. We'll be back in 2015! |
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| August: Volunteering with Andy, Gary and Paul at a Kids Run for Fun event. |
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| August: Vacation in MI with Clint! Some quality time together, some R & R and some cross training (hiking and paddleboarding!) was enjoyed. |
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| September: Rev3 Cedar Point! I had a blast as a member of a relay (I did the bike portion) with two awesome Rev3 girls. |
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| August: Spectating Clint's 17-mile trail race...spectating him has become one of my fav pastimes! |
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| September: Spectating Clint at the Quad Cities Half Marathon where he ROCKED it with a time of approx. 1:25 |
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| October: Clint and I volunteered at Run the Woods 5k/8k, an event that benefits Easter Seals and for which I have served on the committee for the past few years. We handed out PowerBar products (one of our awesome Rev3 sponsors!) to participants as well. |
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| October: Random trainer ride! HA! |
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| October: Exploring the trails at Clinton Lake with C! |
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| October: Allerton Park trail race |
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| October: Allerton Park trail race...what a fun event! |
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| November: Canal Connection 10k |
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| November: Clint and I both placed in our age groups AND had PRs at the Canal Connection 10k! |
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| November: Start of the Jingle Bell Run 5k |
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| December: Often Running Thursday night group runs got a lot colder and darker! |
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| December: Our first run as an ENGAGED couple! |
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| December: Challenge Triathlon Team Announcement! Rev3 is now Challenge Family and I am SO excited to be on this team for the second year in a row! |
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| January: Ringing in the New Year with a midnight underpants run to "celebrate" our friend Paul's 50th birthday. We ran one cold mile in 7:20. Yes it was cold. Yes I can't believe I actually did that ;). |
What a year it's been, indeed!
On my desk at work, I have my current PRs listed so that they are fresh in my brain...and to motivate myself to constantly work toward bettering myself. Here's the list, as it currently stands:
I'd like to see a number of edits on this at the end of next year!
Goals for 2015
1-Run a sub 21:00 5k
2-Run a sub 1:40 half marathon
3-place in my age group at Tri-Shark (local sprint triathlon in June)
4-Complete a sub 6 hour 70.3
5-Run my 11th marathon sometime next fall in any amount of time
6-Get married
7-log all of my training miles so I can report back on yearly totals at this time next year :-)
*if goals 1-5 interfere with goal 6, they shall be discarded ;-)*
Wait whaaaaat?! Get married?! If you're reading this you've most likely seen the Facebook post or heard the news...Clint indeed proposed on Christmas Day and I indeed accepted.
The short and sweet of it is: Christmas morning we went on a 6 mile run. Afterwards, we opened gifts together. One of my gifts was a new pair of running shoes. I decided to swap the laces out right away and Clint offered to do one shoe for me. When he handed it back to me...there was something extra and rather sparkly dangling from the laces. I freaked out a bit, informing him that "I can't run with that on my shoe!!" He asked me to be his wife, I said yes (at some point after I stopped hyperventilating ;-)), and here we go...off on our biggest adventure yet! I can't wait to be "wife" to this most incredible man and am looking forward to doing life by his side.
The past few weeks have been a whirlwind. The engagement brings an immense amount of happiness, excitement and anticipation along with it. Additionally, my sister announced during our family celebrations on Christmas Eve that the baby she and her husband are expecting next spring is a GIRL! My dear sweet niece Macy will get to experience one of my most treasured life experiences: having a little sister! I'm proud and excited to watch my sister's family grow.
In addition to these most amazing life changes, this Christmas/New Year season my family said goodbye to two dear family members. My grandfather (my father's father) passed away on December 27 and my grandmother (my mother's mother) passed away last night (December 31). I'm so, so grateful for the many years of memories I have with both of these grandparents. I cannot fittingly put into words the sadness that comes along with these events, particularly with watching my parents navigate the loss of their parents (to add to this, my mother lost her father/my grandfather in May and my father's mother is currently hospitalized and dealing with significant health concerns). I'm so thankful that I was able to visit with family members numerous times these past few weeks and reminisce (and even laugh!) about old memories. Visiting both grandparents before they passed away is something I will treasure always as well. This next week will bring funerals and more time with family. As much as I'm dreading facing the sadness head-on, I'm looking forward to spending precious time with the people who are most important to me.
So...
...much has transpired this past year and in the past few weeks in particular. I'm looking forward to 2015 and to cranking away toward my goals...while keeping my primary focus on things that are the most important to me, with my upcoming marriage and my relationships with my family and friends at the top of that list. Someone recently said the phrase "make your words matter" to me and I've adopted this as an informal personal mantra for the next year. Make your words matter...spoken, written...I plan to write more about my thoughts on this later. For now, I think this rambling mass of words is more than long enough!
Keep learning, training, running and growing friends. After all, the best of us is yet to come.
~Rachel
