How's It Goin' 2014?

We are about to hit the 2 month mark for this awesome year! I wanted to just kind of write up an assessment post about how I think I've been doing with my goals, and also how my goals have changed over these 2 months.

I do not think changing my goals is the same thing as giving up or failing.

I think we should constantly be thinking about why we're doing the things we do. Is it because we feel like people expect us to do those things? Do these things make us happy? Do they make you healthy (physically, mentally, emotionally)? Do they work for you and your family?

I do think it's important to make goals and stick to them, but to an extent. One of the most important things I've learned this past year is that it's OK to change your mind about something if your situation changes or if you get new information about something.

So, back to the notorious first of the year post where I talk about leaving the LDS church.

Well, don't forget, there were some goals in there too! Here they are:

1. Ballet
I have been taking ballet classes, and had the opportunity to perform in The Nutcracker with my girls last month! That was so wonderful! I've made a bunch of friends from ballet classes and from talking to other parents there, and am so grateful for that! I will continue taking ballet, and possibly take part in the spring performance as well. I haven't decided if I want to commit to that yet, or not though. :)

The thing about ballet is that I still love it, but I'm worried that it is contributing to my problems with my Achilles tendon. Last time I went to class, the instructor kept saying things like, "be really careful when you do this because it's really hard on the Achilles..." That same day I talked to a fellow triathlete/ballet girl in my class about how she got injured, thinking it was running related. She told me it was actually from all the ballet she was taking while getting ready for the Nutcracker!

After that I felt uncomfortable with the idea of going anymore, at least while my Achilles is still my weak spot and while I'm trying to build my running mileage back up. I haven't talked to my doctor about what he thinks about ballet and it contributing to my injury, but I just feel like I have so much to do right now that it's ok for me to back out of ballet for a little while. I'm thinking I'll start back up in the fall, after my tri season is done and I don't have to worry quite so much about injury. I do still hope to keep growing the relationships with the friends I have met though ballet, and luckily I am still there most days so I still get to see everyone.

2. Fitness Classes
I've decided to take advantage of all the classes at my gym that I can. I found out last night that they have spin classes 3 mornings a week so I went and tried one out today! It was fantastic! I loved it, it felt so good to be working hard with other people again! I didn't think we had good spin classes at my gym so I am super excited to start going to these ones and any other ones I can fit in. I am going to be sore tomorrow, though! It's been WAY too long!

I have been loving my spin classes! I really haven't gone as often as I wanted to, but I haven't done a terrible job either. I went on Friday and Monday and plan on going to bed early tonight so I don't miss it tomorrow! Two times a week is good for me. If they did it on Wednesdays instead of Thursdays, I would probably go three times, but I also don't mind having Wednesday as just a swimming day.

I also really love Zumba and had totally been planning on taking that back up, but I kind of feel the same way about it as I do about ballet. Sadly, I've decided to wait until I'm not worried about injury before I go back to it as well. As far as other classes are concerned, I feel like my time is taken up about as much as I want it to be with workout out so I probably won't do any other classes right now either.

3. Running Groups
I went and saw this amazing doctor just before Christmas and he gave me some Cortisone pills, which worked like magic for my poor Achilles Tendon, and told me to start planning some races!!  (Yeah, I really like him.) Luckily my Achilles Tendon was just really inflamed and we just had to get rid of that before I could start running again. And I had to get new shoes with more support. He told me I could probably do theSalt Lake City Half Marathon in April, and I had been thinking about doing that one anyway if I could, so that's the plan now! Today I had permission to try out running. He said I could walk for 5 minutes, run for 10, then walk for 5 again and tell him how it goes. I did that after spin class and felt amazing! Hopefully it will still feel amazing tomorrow morning, then I should be good to go! The Salt Lake Running Company has a training group specifically for this half marathon so I want to join that to help me get back on track and I will hopefully make some new friends and change up my long runs while I'm at it! They start training in 3 weeks, so right now my goal is to just work back up to 3 miles which will be their first long run.

I did not join that running group I was talking about! Man, it doesn't look like my goals are going that well at all, does it? :)

There were two reasons why I decided not to join the group. The first one was that I decided to do a different half marathon so this one wouldn't be specifically geared to me anymore. The second reason was that I decided I would rather be able to run with my friends whenever and wherever I wanted instead of being bound to this group's training schedule. I think this has gone really well. So far I've actually done most of my long runs with friends, and it has been really good. Running is such a great activity to do with someone, especially if you haven't seen them for a while and you have a lot of catching up to do and you plan on running for a long time. I truly have enjoyed these runs with my friends, new and old, so I think it was a good decision to hang back on the group.

As far as running goals go, I think I'm doing alright. I'm up to 7 miles on my long runs, and hope to do 8 this weekend if my ankle is ok with that. (I'm icing it right now and decided to skip running today since it's still a tiny bit sore) I have 5 weeks until the half marathon (which I still haven't signed up for!) so I think I should be ok on mileage. My speed is going up and that is making me happy! I also am planning on running this half marathon with a friend who I haven't seen in a long time so, socially, it feels like a good choice as well.

On top of these things goals, I plan to go snowboarding at least every Sunday with the kids while there's snow, and climbing when there's not. LOVE!

We have pretty much done this! Last Sunday we just ended up going for a drive because it felt too warm for snowboarding, and Pete's ankle was hurting so we didn't want to go hiking or anything either. It was still really fun and a nice day, though. The important thing for me is at least seeing the mountains and spending time with my family. We have at least done that every week!

The last goal I mentioned was writing on my blog more, and I have done pretty good with that. I haven't been writing every day, but I have been able to post at least once a week so I'm happy with that.