Tag: goals

August 2024

On By LeraIn Life, runningLeave a comment

It’s been a crazy past few months! My knee is still not 100%, but it hasn’t been much of an issue when I run, so I’ve been going 2-3 days a week for just a short time, anywhere from 20-45 minutes, with an occasional longer run up to an hour. I did my first event of the year this past weekend, which was a 4 mile race. I had hit that distance through training a few times before, but I was never able to run the whole distance. I don’t mind doing the run/walk method for my workouts, though, as I find it’s generally easier on my body.


Race day was extremely hot and humid. It was already over 80 degrees at the 9:30 start time, and I knew it was going to be a struggle. I don’t do well running in the heat, but I’ve been trying to get my body used to it this summer. It did at least go better than last summer’s race under the same conditions, so it’s definitely an improvement. I ended up walking over half the course, which was disappointing. I had hoped to be able to run the first half and do run/walk intervals in the second half, but it just wasn’t meant to be. The course was almost full sun. There were three water stops set up, but only the first stop had water available. The other two stops ran out of cups and had nothing to offer but to pour a little water over people’s heads. I purposely didn’t bring water with me because I’ve never done a race where they didn’t have water to offer like that, but I learned my lesson for next time and will be looking for a small, handheld water bottle for my next summer race, whenever that may be.


All in all, considering the way this year has been with wondering if my knee would ever cooperate, I was happy to be able to finally do a race, even if it wasn’t in the exact way I would prefer. I’m going to take a week or two off, get back to a really comprehensive pre-hab program, and see if I can’t get this knee pain all the way gone. I am planning to do my favorite Halloween themed 5k in October and am still searching for a costume to wear. I have a few ideas, but can’t decide on anything for certain yet.

No matter what happens in terms of my running the rest of this year, I did meet my goal of doing a race longer than a 5k. When I set that goal, I was thinking more like finally trying a 10k, but that’s going to have to be a next year goal. I don’t want to tax my knee too much and set myself back, although to be honest I’m losing hope it will fully heal without some more intervention. However, there’s not much I can do about it but wait, though!

A Race for July

On By LeraIn Life, running, weight lossLeave a comment

I ran my first 5k of the year on Thursday! My performance was absolutely awful, but I still had fun anyway.

It was a hot and very humid evening with the race starting at 7:30pm. I started out really strong with one of my fastest miles ever. I got a cramp in my calf just five minutes into the race, but I was able to push past that well enough and finish that first mile on track to PR. After that, I slowed down to a slow jog, and then ended up walking. The heat was making me feel dizzy and I ended up just walking most of the rest of the race. It was my own fault for starting too fast. I was happy enough to just finish this one.

After the race, there was a concert and dinner that was included in the race entry fee, so I met up with my running friends and we enjoyed a picnic on the grass while listening to the music until the sky grew dark and the fireflies came out. All in all, it was a fun night, even if I had one of my worst races.

5 Month Weight Progress

On By LeraIn Life, weight lossLeave a comment

Good evening, readers! I just had my second progress check for my weight loss with my doctor, and he was pleased with where things are. I’ve lost 32 pounds in the last five months! The first two and a half months I made way more progress than this second two and a half months (24 lbs vs 8 lbs), but he told me that usually by this point he’s seen patients gain weight back, and not to be too worried about slower progress because it naturally comes off faster at the beginning. That said, he gave me some advice to try, which was to set five pound goals at a time rather than just focusing on how far I still have to go. He told me that any time I do a workout, I should focus on my next small goal number and keep that at the front of my mind while I’m pushing myself.

He asked me what my diet was like, and I told him I was doing well eating clean 80% of the time, but that I’m sure if I cleaned it up more, I might see more progress. I was a lot more strict with myself in the first two months than I have been lately, so it makes sense. I’ve been more aware of not giving in to temptation lately, even bypassing a new limited time flavor iced cappuccino from one of my favorite cafes.

So yeah, going to be checking back in with my doctor in eight weeks, and hopefully I can manage to eat clean 95%+ of the time and see some faster progress. It’s really motivating to have an appointment scheduled because I know I can’t just slack off until my yearly appointment next winter, which is exactly what happened last year. I’m so grateful to have such excellent support from him. He even told me he was proud of my progress. In my daily life, I’m surrounded by people who tell me to treat myself to some good food or drink, so it’s nice to have someone to talk to about how hard it is to avoid that mentality all the time. The fun foods will always be there in the future, so I feel like I don’t want to jeopardize my progress with that kind of stuff on a daily basis.

One final note is that I signed up for Wondr, which is a weight loss program my job lets me access for free. It’s focused on making little lifestyle changes that add up over time, so I think getting a different perspective through that will help. My doctor has personally used it and really had a lot of good things to say about it when I brought I up, so I’m hoping it will be a great resource.

Attempting to Lose Half of Me

On By LeraIn Life, weight lossLeave a comment

So here goes. This is going to be an introduction to my weight loss journey. As much as I hate that phrase, I don’t know what else to call it. It’s one I’ve been on before, and one I started years ago before just not caring anymore. Well, I’m calling this my finale, because I want to finally be done with it for good after this time.

Ten years ago, I had done pretty well at losing weight. I dropped 73 pounds out of the 150 I needed to lose over the course of about ten months. I hit a plateau and struggled with a depression I had never felt before, and subsequently gained it all back that next year. I didn’t attempt to try again until a few years later, and then managed to lose 53 pounds. My weight pretty much hung out there for a few years. I didn’t lose any more weight, but I didn’t gain any of it back. Last year, I wanted to finally finish what I had started, so I tried Noom. I did well at the beginning. Eight weeks in, I had lost 19 pounds and I thought that was finally going to be the key I was looking for. However, I lost control. I was struggling with feeling trapped in a job I hated and working hours that made it hard to see other people. I gained those 19 pounds back, plus ten more over the course of last year.

When February came around this year and it was time for me to check in with my primary care doctor (Dr. S), I knew I had to do something. I had reached my low point in December when I binge ate the night before my 5k and made myself physically sick. I was up vomiting all night long after eating chips and a whole bag of M&Ms. When I went in to my appointment, I was embarrassed I hadn’t made any progress the past year. When Dr. S asked me if there was anything I wanted to focus on during the appointment, tears immediately came to my eyes and I told him I wanted him to help me with a weight loss plan because I failed last year. He was so supportive of me asking him. He discussed his own struggles and gave me some options to choose from. Despite the fact that I am active with running and cycling, I wasn’t losing weight. He discussed medically managed weight loss (basically an ultra low calorie diet consisting of only 800 calories a day and weekly weigh ins), medications, or surgery. During the appointment, I had no idea what I wanted to do, so I asked if I could think it over and let him know.

I knew 100% that I didn’t want surgery, even though he said it was the most effective in the long term. It just seemed like so many people struggled with proper nutrition after having surgery that it didn’t seem like something I wanted to risk dealing with for the next 50 years of my life. I looked into medically managed weight loss, and it didn’t seem like it was a good fit for me being so active, and making time for an appointment once a week would be a hassle. In the end, I asked him more about medications and which one he recommended, and in the end, I decided to see if I could get my insurance to approve it. None of the medications are a magic fix, but they work in conjunction with lifestyle changes to make progress faster.

Of course, it wasn’t going to be that easy. My insurance requires multiple months worth of progress notes from my doctor and the name and date of a weight loss plan before approving it. He warned me that it wasn’t likely to be approved right away, so I wasn’t surprised. Right now, he’s having me work on a lower calorie plan (1200-1400 per day) and increasing my workouts. I’m also going into the office to weigh in and talk with him about my progress roughly every two months for accountability. Seeing the diagnosis for ‘severe obesity’ on that medication denial letter was another low point for me, but it gave me even more determination to get it right this time.

I just had my first progress check two weeks ago and I lost 21.6 pounds in the first 2 months. He was really surprised that I had lost so much and said if I was able to keep that pace, I wouldn’t even need medication. Having an official “goal date” to work toward really was helpful. It made things easier to manage looking at just the next two months, rather than waiting a whole year to go back and it makes it hard to procrastinate. It also was motivating due to the fact that if I hadn’t made progress, I would have been embarrassed and ashamed for wasting his time, but I’m sure he would have talked with me about different strategies to try if I hadn’t done well.

Before I left my appointment last week, he asked me if I wanted to try to get a different medication approved, keep checking in with him to to have the progress notes for the original medication he suggested, or if I wanted to do things on my own and just see him next year. He told me, “I’m here to support you, whatever you decide.” In the end, I decided to make another appointment for a weigh-in and progress check because I found it so motivating.

I’m so fortunate to have a doctor who genuinely cares and offers support however he can. I’ve never had a doctor that talks to me like a partner in my care before I met him 4 years ago. It’s also easy to talk to him about my weight because he’s been through losing a lot of weight himself, so he knows how it is. I don’t feel embarrassed or judged. After all the time he’s going to be taking for me this year, I don’t want to let him down.

More importantly, I’m tired of letting myself down. I want to have the kind of life where I finally feel comfortable in my skin. Right now I am 71.5 pounds down from my heaviest weight, and I have 81.5 to go to get to the very top end of a healthy weight range. I want this to finally be the time I do it.

In the coming weeks/months, I’ll share what’s working for me, what’s still hard for me, and just every day life in between.

Happy July!

On By LeraIn Life, runningLeave a comment

The last nearly two months have been crazy! I just finished a week where I was traveling to other offices. It wasn’t bad, but I think I’ll like some offices better than others. Some days I feel like I’m doing well, and other days I feel like I make one mistake after another. Despite how challenging it can be at times, I really am enjoying this new adventure.

Next, running! I’ve been running every single Saturday morning in the woods. It’s so freeing that I don’t know how I was doing it on the road before. It used to be that it was too painful for all of my injuries, but it hasn’t been bad lately. My knee is still bothering me, especially the tendon below my kneecap, but it’s not bad enough that I can’t run. I’ve only been going once or twice a week, but I’m hoping I can eventually get that to three times. I would like to do a Halloween race again this year. It was a ton of fun last time getting dressed up and going out to enjoy the morning.

I ended up replacing my FitBit charge 3 with a Garmin Forerunner 55. My FitBit wasn’t tracking accurately and was giving me some crazy paces. I wish I could believe that I was really running 9 minute miles, but I know that’s way too fast. If I can keep it at 14 minutes a mile, I’m doing well, so it was obviously off by quite a bit. It wasn’t as inaccurate on the roads, but still enough that I decided to upgrade. The Garmin has GPS built in, so it will be a lot more accurate than the FitBit, which had to connect to the GPS on my phone. It also means that on rainy days, I won’t even need to worry about protecting my phone; I can just leave it at home now and still track my runs.

Really not much else has been going on. I’ve just been getting used to working a normal office hours type job and enjoying having my nights and weekends free to do whatever I want. It’s a nice new level of freedom I never knew existed before!

April News!

On By LeraIn Life, runningLeave a comment

This post is going to start with some good news! I found a new job that I will be starting in the coming weeks! I’m so excited to make the transition to something new after nearly 8 years doing the same thing. I’m tired of management, I’m tired of the irregular hours, I’m tired of working nearly every weekend and holiday, as well as nights. I’m tired of people yelling at me for things beyond my control every day. It’s just time to move on and see what the next adventure is.

I’ll now be coordinating care for patients in a cardiology office, which sounds simple to say it that way, but hearing the way it was described at my interview makes it seem somewhat overwhelming. However, I’m up for the task of learning how to be great at this new path. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting that office to call me. I had put my application in two and a half weeks before they called to schedule my interview, so I pretty much assumed I wasn’t going to hear anything. I was happily surprised when they called me and asked if I was free the next day. I was really nervous, because I don’t do well at interviews. I never feel like I answer any questions very clearly, but this one went okay. Not excellent, but not badly. We got to talking and they offered me the job before I even left. They said if I was willing to work hard and learn the ropes, they would put the time in to training me. I had interviewed off and on for similar positions for the past year with other offices and hadn’t had any luck, so I’m truly blessed to have found this.

That’s the biggest thing that’s been going on this month. I did finally do my first run in two months this past Friday, and it went relatively well. I think I would have been better off running on the road, but a trail run just sounded so nice. The uneven ground has often been a problem for me, though. It got my ankle a little sore, which I think affected my knee some. I didn’t have too much pain, though, just mild. However, later on at work, I noticed when I was squatting that my kneecap felt like it was sliding more than it had been the last month. I’m continuing to strengthen my muscles, as that is my biggest limiting factor in things getting better. I just can’t seem to get my hips/glutes to engage with my physical therapy exercises, and at least two thirds of the things I do there are designed to target those areas. I asked my PT if he had any other tips to try, and he told me that “as crazy as it sounds, focus your brain power on just the muscles you are trying to get to move and it can make a difference.” I see where he’s coming from; being mindful of really noticing how your body is moving during an exercise should be helpful. I see my sports medicine doctor in a couple of days for a follow-up, but I don’t think he’s going to have anything to say other than just keep working on strength. The pain isn’t much of a problem except when I put too much weight through my right leg, and that’s something that would tend to improve with strength. I’ll still ask him if he has any thoughts on getting my muscles to work better, so we’ll see.

That’s all for today. I do want to give an update on my progress with Noom, but I haven’t been doing well at following the program the last two weeks. Once this last week of work is done and I get a good routine going having the same shift Monday through Friday, it will go better. It’s hard to plan when you never know what you’re doing until one or two days before the new week begins. I think once I get back on track, I’ll have more to say about it. I still have a loss of ten pounds, so I’m happy I didn’t gain anything the last two weeks.

So, until next time, take care!

February Failure?

On By LeraIn Life, runningLeave a comment

Well, it’s February and I feel like I already lost out on one of my goals for the year. I had planned to run a race every month this year, and today was supposed to be our local hot cocoa run. I had signed up over a month ago and fully planned on going, but two days ago I decided that I would switch it to the virtual option. I’m still trying to let my knee heal and I thought it would be better for me if I didn’t have the added pressure of trying to run more than my body told me I should just because of the environment. It’s been discouraging to go to the races and know I just can’t run all of it. I end up feeling great when I finish, but a mile into the race when I start walking, it feels crushing.

Virtual racing is just not the same, but it was nice for the fact that there is no pressure, I can decide when and where I go, and I brought my dog along with me. We just got another round of snow and ice the day before yesterday, so the park I went to looked like a winter wonderland. My dog was so excited to be out on a walk (not something we do daily in the winter) that he pulled me the entire time, so he really got my pace up there.

In other news, I’m almost done with this round of physical therapy for my runner’s knee, and I have a follow-up appointment with the sports medicine doctor in a week and a half. I’ve been working really hard at strengthening my whole right leg, which is very weak compared to my left. I’ve made some noticeable gains in strength, but it still feels like I have a long way to go. I still can’t do a single leg squat on it without something feeling like it’s slipping out of place and collapsing on me. Putting any kind of load through my bent knee without support from the other leg is a failure still. I don’t know what to expect at this doctor’s appointment. I don’t know if I’m ready to be done with PT, but I also know that I can’t keep going there forever. The problem is, that some of the most beneficial things I do there use equipment I just don’t have access to without it. I’ll have to ask about how to transition to a home program this coming week if my PT and my doctor decide it isn’t worthwhile to continue.

I had my yearly check-in with my regular doctor this week. Thankfully, other than just needing to lose some weight, there’s no major issues. All my bloodwork is normal. My blood pressure has been high in the office the last few times, so my doctor asked me to monitor it at home for a few weeks and send him the results. So far, I’ve only had one high reading and the rest have been normal, so hopefully it’s just an anxiety thing. I never feel like I’m nervous in a medical setting, but maybe my body says otherwise. I really value the time my doctor takes to talk to me about everything without lecturing me. I feel like I can have an open and honest conversation and not like I have to hide anything. We talked about trying a program like Noom or Wondr to help me change some behaviors, and I think I’m going to try one of them.

Lastly, I’ve been feeling a lot of stress lately from work. For a month now, everything I do seems to garner criticism. I don’t even want to get out of bed most days because I know I’ll be facing more of the same. I pretty much know I can’t keep dealing with it, but it’s not like I can do anything about it other than trying to stand up for myself while I try to find something else. I’ve been going to church regularly since August, and it’s really helped me practice patience. I know that it likely isn’t about me as the root cause, because I haven’t done anything different than how I used to, so I try to keep things professional and not say some of the things I really want to say. For now, I just focus on prayer and trying to endure whatever I need to endure, because I know it won’t last forever.

I’ll give you guys another update in a few weeks after I know where I stand with my running and injury rehab. Thanks for taking the time to read this 🙂

New Year, New Goals 2022!

On By LeraIn Cycling, Life, runningLeave a comment

I can’t believe it’s a new year already! 2021 seemed to go by fast. Mostly it was a good year. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, but nothing overtly bad happened either. I do wish I wasn’t bringing my runner’s knee into the new year, though. I was hoping I could start this year out strong and ready to tackle things, but that will be a little delayed.

I followed up with my sports medicine doctor two days ago and he wants me to do some more physical therapy, which I pretty much knew he was going to recommend. He told me that he wanted my PT program to be really aggressive and that he wasn’t concerned about making anything worse. He said he was fine with me staying at the clinic I’ve been going to if they can push me hard enough, otherwise he recommended the clinic in his building because they work with a lot of athletes. So, honestly I don’t know what I want to do. I’m going to chat with my usual PT on the phone when he returns to the office Tuesday and see what he might think. I feel like I could have been pushed more in my first round, but I think he was afraid of doing more damage. I think I would be okay with either option. My usual clinic always gets me back running, but at the same time it might not hurt to try something new either. I love that my doctor takes my goals seriously. I got so lucky to have found someone who listens so well.

So what are my goals for this coming year? I have a lot in terms of running, but also some others.

1. Run a 5k race every month this year.

2. Get my 5k time under 40 minutes, and then to under 35.

3. Do one speed session each week to help my running pace.

4. Trail run at least twice a month.

5. Try a 30 day run streak.

6. Sign up for a training group with the local running shop.

7. Consider trying a race longer than 5k if my body is up for it.

8. Incorporate jump rope into my fitness routine.

9. Do several 100 mile bike weeks.

10. Get back to studying Japanese.

I will probably be adding some things on this list eventually, but this is a start. Most of the running ones should be easily attainable when I can resume normal training. I’m still on the 1-1.5 miles twice a week thing until I get more strength built up, so my race times won’t be great for a few months, but it’s better than nothing at all!

I already started this year with a 5k on New Year’s Eve. It started just before midnight, and when midnight hit, fireworks went off, so that was cool to see while running. It was a smaller race with around 200 people, but everyone was really nice! Even though I was fifth from last at finishing, there were still people around to cheer as I ran across the finish line, which usually doesn’t happen at the bigger races. I definitely wouldn’t mind doing that race again every New Year’s!

PT, a 5K, and Life

On By LeraIn Life, runningLeave a comment

It’s hard to believe the year is almost over already! In the month since I’ve updated you guys, I’ve finished physical therapy for the time being, unless my doctor decides I need to do some more. I don’t go back for my follow-up until January 5th, so for the next couple weeks, I will be working on my stretches and strengthening at home and seeing how it goes. If things get worse before my appointment, my PT said I could call and we could figure out what needs to be done. I’m not 100% convinced that I will be okay on my own yet because it’s hard to measure that when I haven’t been doing my usual running and biking. I’m still having some trouble with my knee. It had started to feel better, and then I had a work week that destroyed all of my progress and set me back. I still can’t function well at work unless I’m maxed out on ibuprofen. A physical job and an injury do not go well together. That’s why I have such slow healing times whenever I get injured.

Despite all that, I did do another 5K that was holiday themed two weeks ago. I was already signed up, so my PT knew I was going to try it anyway. I had originally planned to try running half of it, since my doctor told me I could run one to one and a half miles twice a week, but I didn’t even make it much more than a half mile. I felt so much like I failed when I had to walk almost that whole distance. Obviously I was being too hard on myself in that moment, but it was hard to not think that way. There’s nothing wrong with walking if you need to. I shouldn’t have beaten myself up about it while dealing with a known injury and not having been able to train properly. What helped pull me out of that thinking during the race was a group of 4 little kids just past the two mile mark standing in their yard and throwing leaves like confetti at all of us and cheering for us. They didn’t care how anyone was doing. They cheered for everyone going by them anyway.

After that race, I took two weeks off. My PT said I could ease back in to running by starting with a half mile run. That’s less than my doctor had said, but I. Think it’s for the best to take it slower after that abysmal performance I had at that race. When my PT asked me when my next race was, I told him New Year’s Eve at midnight. I don’t think he was expecting that because he just started laughing and called me “one of those crazy runners”. I told him I would be sure to take it easy and just run as much as my body felt comfortable with. I think I’ll be walking a little in the beginning to get my body warmed up some and then try to run about a mile and a half. I’m hoping in two weeks I can be close-ish to that. I did 10 minutes today, which was 0.2 miles more than the half mile I was supposed to do, but I was feeling okay and thought it would be good for me mentally to at least be able to do 10 minutes. It felt so hard after not being able to train much. It’s been at least a month since I ran over 30 minutes. Every other run has been 20 or less, and getting back to it after no running for weeks at a time was a challenge. I was very slow, but in a way that’s good because it will ease my knee back in, hopefully.

I probably won’t update this again until January after my next 5K and my appointment since life is pretty boring otherwise. I do have a week off starting December 21st, so I just have two more work days to make it through and then I can let my body and mind rest a little. It’s been so stressful the last couple of weeks. I’ve been stuck staying late every week on my morning days, which would be fine if it was once in a while, but not 3 weeks straight. And then yesterday, someone I work with massively took their anger out on me for a situation I couldn’t control and I had a breakdown. I was shaking and trying not cry while I was still at work, which was unsuccessful. At the point where it started, I only had one more hour to go, so I was able to hold most of it back until I got home. One day I just won’t go back. I can’t take many more days like that. I try not to take it personally, but I got yelled at and accused of “trying to get out of work” because a company we contract with had a weird situation occur and couldn’t deliver our product that day. It was out of their hands, and it was out of mine. There wasn’t anything either of us could have done about it. All we can do is wait for an alternate delivery date. To be yelled at about it was unfair.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a great rest of the year, and a great start to 2022!

Run For Your Life— A Halloween Event

On By LeraIn Life, runningLeave a comment

Hey, y’all! It’s been a while again. I’ve been doing pretty well with my running and biking despite my knee giving me some troubles. It’s been bothering me off and on all year, so it isn’t anything major. However, it’s been more and more of an issue lately, so I’m hoping to get it looked at and figure out what I need to do to fix it since the pain won’t stay gone. I don’t want to end up with any long-term problems.

That said, this month I did do another 5k race! I ran it with a couple of friends, so of course I had a good time. One of my friends did the 10k earlier in the day and the 5k 2 hours later (massive respect for her taking on that challenge), and the other ran the 5k with me. We tackled it together in run/walk intervals and I did a lot better with this one than I did at the race in August. It was Halloween themed, and I was planning to wear a costume, but I didn’t have enough time to make one and I didn’t feel like buying one, so I just made an orange/black/purple tutu to wear. I ended up glad not to have a costume after all because it was so humid. It had rained until an hour before the race, so everything was all steamy. The weather cleared and there was even a little bit of sun peeking through the clouds here and there, but I was glad it wasn’t full-on sun or it would have been even hotter. The race was held at an orchard, so on the way to pick up our race bibs and shirts, we had to walk through a field on a hill. It was muddy from the rain and I rolled my ankle three times by the time I got my bib, walked stuff back to the car, and walked to the starting line. Thankfully, it never rolled far enough to actually cause pain, so that was very lucky.

I wasn’t feeling nervous before this race like I did before every other one I’ve done. One of my friends rode to the race with me and we stopped at Starbucks before we hade the half hour drive. I guess the caffeine really helped! My main goal this race was to look good in my race pictures, but I managed to look like I was dying in just about every single one. There were photographers at miles 1 and 2, and at the finish line. The only picture I look kind of good in was the finish line one, and I think the fog machine helped in that one to add some atmosphere in. I at least look happy, but I still look a whole lot more exhausted than I felt. I’ll just have to try again at one of the other races that has in-race photographers. The finish line was fun because they announced every runner’s name as they crossed, so I felt like a celebrity. We collected our medals and made our way to the refreshment stand, where they had freshly made cinnamon donuts, popcorn, and cold apple cider. We battled a couple of bees to try to eat our snack, but I successfully managed not to get stung in the mouth (which happened to me 3 times as a kid, so I have a bit of a phobia of eating outside with bees buzzing around). I definitely want to do that race again next year. It was a really fun time. Even the people living in the nearby neighborhood that we passed through enjoyed seeing the runners. A few people had tables set up with refreshments they offered us and they were wearing costumes. The T-Rex was a popular choice this year for costumes; one was an adult dressed as one and one was a kid of maybe three or four, both in separate locations.

All in all, it’s been a pretty smooth year. I’m not having near the number of problems I had last year. I’m still really slow and feeling like I’m not making any progress, but I’m enjoying myself anyway. I’ll never be good enough to actually place in a race, so I don’t stress about it too much.

I don’t have any other races planned until New Year’s Eve at midnight, which should be interesting. I’ve been going to bed at 10:30 lately, so I don’t even know if I’ll have a lot of energy to run that late at night, but I’m sure he combination of the cold air and the fun atmosphere will give me enough of a boost. The goal for 2022 is to do a 5k every month, so I’m on the hunt for some fun novelty races. February will be a local hot cocoa run, and March so far looks like it will probably be St. Patrick’s Day themed, but I’m still hunting around. My only requirements for a race is that it has to be a fun one and it has to have finisher medals. What can I say; I like my bling!