High Hopes for the New Year

Happy New Year, friends!!

Life has been…chaotic and busy, to say the least, these last few weeks.  The holidays always throw my routine out of whack, but it just seems like it’s taking me a little longer to bounce back into my day-to-day life.

But…a few things have changed heading into the new year.

First of all, I hired a new running coach.  Yep.  After my former coach and I decided it was best to go our separate ways in July last year, I pulled out old training plans and did my best to get myself into shape to hit a BQ at the Chicago Marathon.  The training was hard, but I did my best to get myself prepared within the weeks I had left to get myself to that start line. We all know, if you read my race review, that my Chicago Marathon went all kinds of hella wrong.  I was really down on myself and disappointed with my performance, because I was told, by so many people, that there was no way (even with the new qualifying times released JUST before the Chicago marathon) that there was no way I wouldn’t qualify.  Guess what…I didn’t.  I tried two out of my three marathons…and it didn’t happen.  I didn’t let on much, but it bothered me and I felt like I was just going backwards and not forwards, and doing it on my own wasn’t getting me the results I really wanted.  SO…I remembered that a former physical therapist of mine was a running coach…so I got in touch with him…and filled out some paperwork, had a one-on-one with him on the phone…and I started officially training with him on December 31st.  Even more frightening, January 6th marked 16 weeks out from my spring marathon.

Just kidding.  I’m not panicking.

Yet.

Something else has changed in the workout realm. I hired a personal trainer.  Yep.  I sure did.  And you know what?  I really trust him to help me get my body back in shape and ready to race to get my Boston Qualifying time.  It’s a process, but I trust him. I met Corey in 2017, and he opened up his own personal training businesses a while back.  I never thought about getting a personal trainer until last summer, but with my fall marathon looming, I didn’t want to start anything too rigorous so close.  So, I started with him on…you guessed it…December 31st and meet with him twice a week.  He plans my workout around the training my running coach sets up and so far it’s all been jiving really well.  I love how Corey explains to me why we are working certain muscles and how it will benefit me when I am running.  I am trusting him and the process of getting me back in racing shape.

And…I’m currently 39 days away from my first official race of 2019.  And I can’t wait. Except I do have to get a few things figured out when it comes to what I’ll be wearing.  Stay tuned.

I hope your 2019 is off to a good start.  What have you changed, started or hoping to do this year?  Tell me in the comments!