2012 Races

Earlier this year, I was talking with Tim about how I was missing doing races.  Last year, I think I only did a few events and I realized that I really miss racing and training.  So, because he's such an awesome hubby, he's been encouraging me to sign up for races and making sure that we have the $$$ in the budget so I can race like I like to.

I haven't really come up with my race schedule for the year, but I am registered for 3 big events.  Here they are!

May 19 - Ogden 1/2 Marathon

June 2 - Little Red Riding Hood Century Ride

September 8 - Bear Lake Brawl 1/2 Ironman

Like I said, I haven't decided what else I would like to do, but I'm kind of toying with doing the Top of Utah 1/2 Marathon, but I think it's just a week or two before the 1/2 IM, so that probably won't happen.  However, there are lots of other options.  I'm just excited to get back into racing.

Choose to Become

In September, I had the opportunity to attend Time Out for Women here in Logan. For those of you who aren't familiar with this amazing awesome weekend, check out this website. It's basically an evening and a day of inspirational music and speakers for women only. I've gone 4 times and plan on continuing to go whenever I have the opportunity.

This year, the theme was "CHOOSE TO BECOME" which I LOVE! This is something I've spent alot of time thinking about and I think I'm finally ready to write about my goals. During the opening remarks, we were encouraged to DISCOVER ALL OF OUR POSSIBILITIES. We were encouraged to make a list of things that come to mind and we were reminded of the scripture in Mark, that ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE. Here is the list of things that I wrote down.

Writing a book
Becoming a strong cyclist
Setting a PR at the 70.3 triathlon distance
Taking voice lessons
Completing an iron-distance triathlon

As I sat down and pondered (yes, I've actually been giving this quite a bit of thought), I noticed that, of course, 3 of my goals involve triathlon and training. Since I got engaged, I've let my training and racing goals slide quite a bit. No excuses for that...except getting married, getting a puppy, having 2 part time teenagers, moving to a new state, etc etc etc. I also feel like I've had to sort of figure out who this "new" AJ is and what she looks like. That probably sounds funny, but it's sort of hard to explain.

So, in an effort to establish my goals and start moving forward, I'm posting my CHOOSE TO BECOME goal.

I'm CHOOSING TO BECOME A TRIATHLETE...AGAIN...specifically an long distance triathlete.

In order for this to happen, there are several things that need to take place. Things like losing weight, getting back into the "training" habit, finding a place to swim that's not 20 minutes away and only open from 5-6:30am, etc.

I've sort of put together a rough draft of a timeline for this happening...hopefully, it will play out this way, but I also know that life is tricky sometimes, so... we'll see what happens.

October 2011-January 2012 - Work on losing weight and regaining strength and fitness. Work on cleaner eating.

February 2012 - Start training for Boise Ironman 70.3

May 2012 - Run the Ogden 1/2 Marathon (one of my favorites) with my hubby, Kyra (my step-daughter) and my friend, Andrea.

June 2012 - Boise Ironman 70.3

September 2012 - Bear Lake Brawl 1/2 Ironman and hopefully (it's a lottery) LOTOJA with my Dad.

At some point, I would like to sign up for an Iron-distance triathlon. I'm sort of thinking Ironman St George, Ironman Arizona, or maybe Ironman Coeur D'Alene, but we'll see. I know that in order to train for an IM I absolutely need my whole team (ie. hubby, kids, dog, etc) on board.

So, that's it...that's my CHOOSE TO BECOME goal. I've already cut out the candy from my diet, started focusing on eating lots more fruits and veggies, journaling my food, and most importantly, working out 6 days a week. Now, I just need the scale to start dropping, and my fitness level going back up. I'm hoping that the blog will be a good way to keep myself honest and up front about how this whole journey is going.

Oh, and I need to remember that

ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE TO HIM (or her) WHO BELIEVETH!

Happy New Year ~ 2011

I live a super exciting life. I spent the evening watching Tim play James Bond on the xbox 360. I was having some stomach issues and wasn't feeling good at all. It was super duper exciting... However, I did have some time to work on my goals for 2011. Here they are!

1. Read the scriptures daily.

2. Attend the temple at least two times per month.

3. Lose 20+ pounds by eating healthy and working out and/or training regularly.

4. Write daily.

5. Develop a new skill or talent.
Oh and here's my big one.

6. PR at the 1/2 Ironman distance. I'm leaning towards the Bear Lake Brawl in August.

The goals are out there...now I just have to start doing them!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Goals for 2009

Because I've talked so much about goal setting in the last week or so, I want to post my goals in order to be transparent. It's certainly not fair for me to talk about goal setting and excellence if I'm not willing to participate in the process. So, here's my kind of big goal for 2009.

~I will place in the top 50% of my age group at the Boise Ironman 70.3.~

There it is...out there for the world to see. I checked out the results from last year and in order for me to do this, I will need to 6:23. That will mean taking off 42 minutes from my 1/2 IM last year, but I know that it's totally doable. In fact, I feel like it's actually quite realistic. This goal will definitely require several smaller goals to be achieved before this one happens. I won't get into all of the gritty details, but since I did talk about putting together a playbook, here's a short list of things that need to happen in order to be successful at the 1/2IM distance.

~Follow my training plan. I'm going to be working with Chris Sweet and his new coaching company Revolution Multisport to develop a personalized training plan that will work for me.

~Get back down to my racing weight. I'm working on developing a nutrition plan that will fuel my body for my training, but will also put me in a caloric deficit so that I'm losing fat and building muscle.

~Focus on building mental toughness. This plan is still a bit sketchy, but I want to improve my inner monologues and visualization, which I know will help me be successful. This will probably require talking to one of my colleagues in sports psych, as well as revisiting my masters degree.

There you have it...my big goal for 2009. I feel like it is definitely specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. I know that I can do it and I'm really looking forward to seeing it all happen. You'll get to read about it happening too.