In 2011, I lost 40 pounds and discovered a love of running. In 2012 I kept running and added a love of triathlon.

The fitness moments I want to remember:
January: started teaching at the Y
February: braved the MN cold and ran outdoors
March: horrible HM that taught me valuable mental lessons
April: bought a road bike & started reading about tris
May: amazing HM experience with hills & rain
June: Grandma's Marathon, my 1st 26.2 in 4:04:16
July: Sprint tri, 1st out of the water in my age group
August: Olympic tri in 2:51, holy buckets! That was hard.
September: did a real pull-up
October: TC 10 mile in 81 minutes, 7 minutes faster than last year
November: started a triathlete ST program
December: crossed 1,077 running miles for the year

That's a pretty good year of events. What's even better is that I shared so much with people that I love. DH, my dad & sister, new & old friends.

I didn't lose any weight this year. But I did stay safely in a maintenance range. Much more important than the number on the scale (and I do care about that a lot!) is living a healthy, meaningful, balanced life. While that list of monthly events may seem like a lot to some, it's not everything I wanted to do. I cut back on races, I changed from an aggressive tri training plan to a beginners half way through the summer, I stopped teaching regularly at the Y. Now I just sub. I'm still trying to find that balance. And my guess is that it will be a forever developing process.

I know that I am lucky that so much of my social and family life is about fitness. There is no way that I would have accomplished these goals without their support. 2013 will be a year of more racing, more personal challenges, another marathon with DH, and unknown fun!

2013 will not be the year I tackle 70.3 (half Ironman distance). I don't want to dedicate that much time to training. At first I typed "I can't" and then changed it to "I don't want to." There is a big difference. It will not be the year I join the Thurs. night cycle group. My daughter has ballet & tap on Thursdays. And she is ridiculously cute and funny.

It's easy to get caught up in racing and want to do more, more, more. My hope is that 2013 is a year of balance. I will continue to challenge and push myself. But not so much that I burn out or miss too much family time. I'd like to write race recaps well into my 40s and 50s and continue to have this be my way of life.



Happy 2013 Sparkfriends!