Let's Recap and Look Ahead

Been off the blog train for a few days, enjoying some family time with my family and Mike's.
The Saturday before Christmas, I got up early for a run before we left to pick up Mike's mom and grandparents from the Madison airport. Got in a few miles by myself when I was surprised to find the SWAT team coming up behind me and they twisted my arm to join them for the rest of their run and for breakfast afterwards. Mike and Nick met me at the restaurant and then we took off for the airport after a quick shower. It was foggy out due to the warming temps and all the snow that was quickly melting. When we arrived we were glad to see the planes were still arriving as scheduled. About 10 minutes before they were due to come in from their connecting flight from Detroit as noon, that changed and everything was cancelled and rerouted. The plane was sent back to Detroit. Many phone calls and a long day behind us, they finally arrived at Midway airport in Chicago about 9:30pm only to find their luggage was lost in space and we waited a long while more while they filed their lost luggage claim. Finally arrived at our house after 1:00am.

Christmas Eve Day we drove to Merrillville Indiana to meet Uncle Mike who was taking the grandparents (his parents) to Ft Wayne for Christmas. We picked them up again later in the week at the same place.

(Here's a picture from the Christmas festivities of my nephew Jacob encouraging his sister Izzy to climb the stairs, apparently by channeling Satan...... My mom is the spotter)

Christmas was nice. My parents, my sister and family, Mike's mom, and his brother and family were there and we enjoyed good food, fun, and a cut-throat game of television trivia.

We spent endless hours with Mike's mom and grandparents shopping, laughing, ate every single thing in sight, and as usual it was over way too quick. We really cherish the time we get to spend with Mike's family. They all live in North Carolina now, so the togetherness opportunities are few and far between - I wish they were closer.... we really miss them.

We dropped them at the Madison airport New Years Eve day, and then we got ready for a quiet night at home watching movies and tearing down the holiday decorations. I am always so relieved when I can put that stuff away and get back to normal. By New Year's I feel like Christmas threw up in my living room.

Today, my parents left for their winter in Costa Rica, so we won't see them again til spring when the snowbirds return.

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Top 5 Funny Phrases from the Week:

1) "How does it feel to work for a company that sucks balls?" (Overheard being asked by the guy in front of us waiting to make a lost luggage claim at the airport)

2) "If someone put a gun to your head and said Poop or Die could you do it?" (I don't know why this came up......)

3) "I'm calling the police" ..."Well, I'm calling Wapner."

4) Dookie

5) Asked by Mike at Blockbuster: "Does this movie have humping in it? I can't watch a movie with humping with my grandparents..." (The movie was Georgia Rule....... the guy was technically right - no humping - but they say "Boner" and Lindsay Lohan took off her underpants and gave some guy a blow job........... I blame the Blockbuster clerk for that embarrassing moment)

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Status of My Goals for 2007:
*Complete my first Duathlon and my first triathlon, then continue to do as many as physically and financially feasible: DONE!
*Complete a 10K race or more: DONE, Several times! Also did my first half marathon
*Compete in at least 1 bike race: didn't do, not because there were not opportunities but because my focus changed from working on my strength - the bike -to focusing on my weakness - running.
*Learn to Mountain Bike: Done, but not well. Had a really hard time conquering my fear of falling down. Crashing....... not so much fun.
*Graduate from Ball State with a BS in Nursing, thereby making me qualified for the job I have done for the past 10 years...................... : DONE!!!!!! (Finally)
*Continue to gradually lose weight into the 150 range or better, and maintain without significant gain: Didn't do this. I held most of the year in the 170-175 range, and after a low point of 160-ish this summer, I found that I was not able to properly fuel my training as I increased my volume. I gave myself permission to focus more on maintaining my weight and on increasing my fitness and endurance. Still a long range goal, but lower on the priority scale (no pun intended).
*Learn to run with my nutjob dog without injuring either of us ;-) : Well, I found a good tool to run with her manageably (the Gentle Leader Walk Harness). Problem is it abrades her across the chest so we can't run often or it leaves her with a mark. We'll keep working on this at least on short runs this spring.

I also updated my mileage spreadsheet .

Here is the upshot:
Running miles: 594.88

Biking Miles: 1885.7

Swimming yards: 57,950 (or 32.93 miles)

My unofficial goal for the year, never having set an annual mileage goal before was a stab in the dark at 2007 total miles for the year, so I guess GOAL MET and exceeded at 2513.51 miles. Now I have a benchmark for 2008 and can set a more aggressive goal.

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My 2008 Dashboard:

I know some of you all don't believe in New Years Resolutions, but I think it is important to have goals to work towards to focus attention in the right direction. The concept for goal setting we use at work is something that they call Dashboards. I think of these goals like the dashboard of the car, something that is always in front of your vision as you move forward.

So that's what I am putting out there this year - my personal dashboard, my vision for the year 2008.

* Complete 2 Half Iron Distance (70.3 mile) Triathlons. We are officially registered for the Spirit of Racine and Iowa Pigman. If all goes well with them, we will get registered for IMWI for 2009.

* Complete my first marathon. The plan is for the Madison Marathon in May. Maybe there will be more than one, but let's just say one for now.

* Do the Danskin Sprint Tri with my sisters. (No pressure girls - it's just for fun!)

* Maintain my weight in the 160-170 range (after taking off the Christmas 10 of course). Maybe even dip into the sub-Athena arena as long as I can manage my endurance nutrition at the same time.
* Run a sub-30 5K. (borrowed that one from Misty, good goal)

* Get my spring cleaning done before December for a change. (Thought I should throw in a person non-exercise goal)

Mileage goals:

Run: 1,000 miles

Bike: 2,008 miles

Swim: 100,000 yards