Monday, January 2, 2012

Day 82 (1/2): 4 miles / 44:03

Today I set out for a nice long 4 mile run... not that 4 miles is particularly long, but I felt it would give me a decent amount of time to reflect on 2011 and look to the year ahead.  I started out an easy pace and, after 3 miles of running in comfort, I picked up the pace for the last mile, which I ran in 8:48. 

And, since I spent the entire time doing all of this 'reflecting', I will warn you that, if you're only interested in reading about running, you can go ahead and skip the rest of this post... I don't believe I'll mention it again... :)

After ringing in the New Year with too many drinks and hours of dancing, today seemed like a great day to reflect on 2011, so I settled in for an easy run on the treadmill and gave some thought to last year's resolutions.  I can honestly say that I consider all of my 2011 resolutions to be accomplished... even if it's not necessarily in the same sense I originally intended when those resolutions were made.

My first resolution for 2011, and the one whose success might be considered a bit of a stretch, was to do a better job cleaning.  I was never a big fan of cleaning and didn't necessarily appreciate the effort once the job was completed.  For me, cleaning was just something I did when absolutely necessary.  Don't get me wrong, I certainly wasn't living in some hoarder's dream house... I simply didn't find it necessary to have every inch of my home dusted at all times.  But, in the spirit of improving my skills as a wife and mother, I decided I was going to spend more time on doing just that.  Unfortunately, that lasted about 3 weeks before I lost interest completely.  One might think this resolution of mine should be considered a failure, but, in November we decided to treat ourselves to a cleaning service and we've never looked back.  With all of the things going on in our lives, we agreed we just couldn't keep up with everything that needed to be done around the house.  As much as I'd love to pretend that I can handle it all, the fact is that there just aren't enough hours in the day and we were unwilling to live in a complete mess all the time.  Part of the reason I consider this resolution to be such a success was my ability to admit to myself that I simply wasn't able to do it... it still got done, just not by me :)  I realize, of course, that this luxury of ours may not last forever, but I can tell you one thing for certain, I'm going to appreciate the hell out of it while it does.

My second resolution was to spend the year decluttering the house.  I'm proud to report that this resolution was a huge success, ending last week with the complete clean out and reorganization of the basement.  Of course, that last project would not have been at all possible without the amazing handywork of my husband, who spent his vacation time building shelves and a work bench and organizing all of the stuff we keep stored down there.  But I did help out where possible on the project and finally forced myself to go through some old junk I'd been hanging on to for far too long.  It felt good to get rid of the things we never use and make room for the new junk we'll likely accumulate over the next several years.

My final resolution was to read one non-fiction book each month of the year.  It had to be something motivational, inspirational or on a topic that I didn't know much about.  I was determined to learn a few new things this year... about myself and anything else I could find a book on.  This is probably the resolution I'm most proud of and, even though it will not be a formal resolution for 2012, I do believe it will be something I'll continue to do, just because I enjoyed it so much.  I started out reading things I thought I would enjoy because I could relate to the subject matter in some way.  I was surprised to find that I was far more inspired by books about things and people that I didn't think I'd have anything in common with at all.  Of course, as I mentioned early on in this blog, my most inspirational book was Winning Every Day by Lou Holtz.  Sure, it had a lot of football references, which was why I don't think I ever would have picked up the book on my own, but I found it to be so motivational and, as it turns out, is what encouraged me to not only start running again, but to start this blog as well.  Another great book for me was my last book for the year, which was about the five secrets to learn before you die.  Of course, most of the information in that book was common knowledge, but gave an interesting perspective on what older people felt was most important to know in order to live a fulfilling life.  My favorite section of that book talked about looking at each big decision in your life from the perspective of an old person sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch reflecting on their life.  What decision would the older version of you tell you to make?  I felt it was a good reminder that, when all is said and done, odds are pretty good you're going to wish you'd taken bigger risks and remembered to live the life you want to live instead of always focusing on the influences around you.  It's not always easy to be true to yourself, but when this short life of ours comes to an end, one would hope to have lived to their full potential.  I love the idea of starting the new year with this thought in the back of my head.

Prior to 2011, my New Year's resolutions were always something silly or not necessarily something I'd even wanted to do.  They were the usual 'lose 10 pounds', 'quit smoking', etc.  Don't get me wrong... those were not silly resolutions... but they weren't MY resolutions.  This last year was the first time I'd set my mind to something to better myself because I wanted to and actually felt like I'd learned something from it in the end.  Setting a New Year's resolution finally has a different meaning for me.

As I thought about all of the things I've discovered about myself in 2011, I tried to come up with something equally fulfilling for 2012.  Unfortunately, thus far, I haven't come up with anything quite like last year, but I have decided on a few things that I don't intend to do.  First of all, I have no intention of setting any running goals for myself.  While it is still my intention to run the marathon in May, I consider that to be a fulfillment of last year's goal, so while I will be working towards that goal in 2012, I don't want to pretend that it's something for this year.  And while I could certainly set some other running goals for this year, I realize that I'm just starting to get back into the running routine and I'm pretty sure the marathon is big enough for this year.  Maybe next year I'll strive for doing something beyond that, but for now I'm satisfied with just this one race :)

So, as boring as it may be, my resolution for 2012, at least for now, is to take better care of my teeth.  I'm sure that sounds kind of ridiculous.  I almost feel silly just writing it.  But, since this blog is meant for me, and because some day I plan to go back and revisit every post just to see how far I've come, I realize it doesn't make much sense to pretend my goals are something more than they are.  The truth is, I brush twice a day... but that's just about where my tooth care ends.  My goal is to see the dentist twice this year for regular cleanings (anyone have a dentist they recommend?  I'm embarrassed to admit that I don't even have one), to floss regularly and, as much as I really hate to admit it, to quit smoking.  I would love to pretend that my quitting a few months back had stuck, but it simply didn't and, over time, I went back to being a full time smoker again... not something I ever posted about, but I'd only be lying to myself if I pretend otherwise.  So, since it is something I want to do and it is most definitely something that would be better for my teeth, I'm lumping it in with taking better care of my teeth this year.  Of course, this was not a 'quit on New Year's Eve' thing... but I'll get there... eventually...

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