Training for What?

Welcome back to the blog, Peeps!  Before I get started, I'd like to announce the winner of the giveaway for Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon Ambassador Jill's book:

Rafflecopter chose Jen R. to receive Jill's awesome book!  Congratulations, Jen; I know you will love it. For those of you who are interested in purchasing Jill's book, and I HIGHLY recommend that you do, click here to buy it from Amazon, or check out Jill's signing at Mahall's (13200 Madison Avenue, Lakewood, Ohio 44107) on January 21, 2017 from 1:30-3:30.  Come meet Jill and have her sign your book; you'll have a great time, a fun new book, and a new friend.

We are halfway through January, and it's time I got my act together and started thinking about goals.  I had a nice little break when I was recovering from surgery (I'll write about that next week), but now I have to get my butt in gear.  And OH BOY HOWDY do I have a butt now.  I have gained ten pounds since I finished running the Akron Marathon, and eight of those pounds are absolutely non-negotiable. I know how I did it, too; I stuffed ALL THE FOOD into my pie hole.  Shame on me.

Luckily, I know what to do about that; get back on the horse (or on the road or trail). I've got to start watching my calories again and making some hard choices about what I put into my mouth.  I'm a stress-eater, and I'm a non-stress-eater; really, I just like food.  I need to remember what it feels like to have some discipline.  To start, I'm looking at my calendar.

One thing that helps me with discipline is my racing goals.  To that end, I have signed up for five races already this year. I'm betting you can guess one of them:

I'm so pleased and honored to be an Ambassador for the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon this year. I love this race, and I love my fellow ambassadors. Check out their social media accounts here. I haven't decided what I'm running for this race series, but I promise I will let you know when I figure it out.

I'm also running the Pro Football Hall of Fame Half Marathon, the Medina Half Marathon, a sixteen-mile leg of the Burning River 100-mile Relay, and the Akron Marathon.

Do you think this will be the motivation I need? Of course, I also have some of the best motivation in the world: my friends.

Joy, Shelby, and I made a pact to do our long runs together. We started today.

What are your goals this year, Peeps?  Until then, run happy!

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