Happy New Year --- 2021

Happy New Year Everyone! I hope this finds you well and you are ready to take on a new year. I looked back on my post from a year ago and read through my goals for 2020. I am sure I am like many of you, I didn't accomplish all of them because of the crazy year we just had. I was not able to participate in many of the races I laid out for the year, which means I was not able to achieve the times I was working towards etc etc.

But lets not focus on the past. Let's keep that year behind us and look ahead. For the past 31 days I have been using a program to create my goals for 2021. I have a number of things I would like to accomplish and achieve this year and they are associated with different aspects of my life. This program spends the first 30 days really looking at your life and what you want to achieve. The next 30 days you create your goals and then a belief method in order to achieve them. So with this in mind, I won't be revealing my goals until February 2021 (Stay tuned). 

I will share that some of the things I have been focusing on come from those items not achieved in 2020 and also those goals I set for myself when I turned 50 in October. 

So far this process has been interesting and fun. Its making me think about what I really want for myself. I have always been an individual who sets goals and goes after them but this process is making me think about why I am choosing these items. So far some items are very simple and others are BIG. I have you on the edge of your seat so far, don't I?

Don't worry I will still be working towards the start line of many races and running towards the finish line (hopefully life lets us compete in person this year). Throughout November and December I had three rest days, one of which was a day I spent shoveling snow. And I kicked off January with a virtual New Year's Day 5K. This past month has also had me on the slopes, skiing. I purchased a new pair of skis this fall and I LOVE THEM!!! I am looking forward to January, February, and March. I hope to spend as much time as possible skiing. It is my favorite, I don't have a care in the world when I am skiing.

If only I didn't have a care in the world all the time. About a month ago I had a discussion with my coach. I shared with her some struggles I have been having with negative body image. I check the miles off my training schedule every time I swim, bike or run but this image I have of myself doesn't go away. So we decided to change things up a bit. 

We have added a more intense strength training program to my calendar. I have been lifting in the gym 3 days a week. This may seem like nothing to some of you but for me this is huge. I have completed 3 weeks of this plan. Strength training is usually the thing I ignore on my calendar or skip if I don't feel like doing it. So far I haven't missed a day and I am getting it done. 

This story is a bit of a foreshadowing to some of my goals and plans for 2021. Stay Tuned!!

I hope you all have a fabulous start to this year. And may you all run after your goals and dreams!!

 

Starting a New Year!!

 

I celebrated a milestone this month, I turned 50! I celebrated with family and friends but made a special trip to my little piece of heaven in Lake Placid, NY. This is my happy place. It empowers me and brings me a sense of peace. 

I shared the trip with 6 friends, we laughed, we cheered, and we cried with each other. We shared goals and empowered each other to reach for the stars and make them happen.

I made a list of what I want to accomplish within this next year:

1. Create Happiness

2. Finish School

3. Run a sub 5 hour marathon

4. PR Tupper Lake 70.3

5. Podium at a 5K or Sprint Tri

6. Start Hiking and explore more of the ADK Park (if Covid - 19 lets me back into NY)

7. Explore Western Mass.

8. Be at a certain weight by 10/19/20

I would also like to learn to make pie crust. 

I have challenged myself to be present with every workout. I have challenged myself to approach each workout with Joy and to push myself to be stronger and better every time!!

As I approach this next year I want to inspire ... I want to be better ... I want to be stronger ... I want to approach everything with joy and passion, personally and professionally!

Every year, every month, every day we have the opportunity to be better ... not measuring up to other individuals better but your better!

Bring on this next year!! I am ready to embrace it!!

Thank you to my dear friends who helped me celebrate this milestone!!

Being Patient ...

 

Being Patient is not my strongest attribute. I recently read an article, The Benefits of Being a Patient Person and according to this article Patient People enjoy better mental health...I don't know if this is true or not. The article also stated that being patient helps us achieve our goals. The author of this article quotes, "The road to achievement is a long one, and those without patience—who want to see results immediately—may not be willing to walk it". Now I have achieved a lot of goals but I still wouldn't consider myself as someone who has patience.

Back in January I fell on some ice that was covered in a light layer of snow while running. I ended up in the splits and aggravated my Piriformis muscle and my gluteus minimus. I went through PT and was cleared to run the end of February just in time to run a half marathon pain free. Since I was cleared this injury has not bothered me one bit until the weekend I ran my 20 miler. I ran my 20 miler on a Saturday and then did a 5 miler on Sunday. I felt sore on Sunday and Monday but didn't think too much of it. On Tuesday I headed out to run 6 miles and ended up only doing 3 because I was in so much pain. It was the same pain I felt in January. I tried it again on Wednesday and was in tears by the end of this run.

A year ago I ran my fifth marathon and finished with a PR 16 minutes faster than my previous marathon PR. This year my goal was to run the Hartford Marathon (October 10) and finish with a sub five hour time. Well while I sat on the coach, sitting on a heating pad in pain, a week ago I had a feeling this was not going to happen. I took seven days off from running and tried to run a 5K a week later. I completed the distance but I was in a lot of pain and probably wouldn't have been able to go much further. My coach has now sidelined me, from running, for at least 10 days (the day I was supposed to run my marathon). Next weekend we will see how I am feeling and re-evaluate if I should run. I have completed some swimming workouts and I have been on my bike. It is amazing how often you use you glutes in every day life. My glutes were inflamed after my most recent swim but thank God I am able to bike without pain. 

I realize I am not the only person who is injured or who has ever been injured but slowing down or

stopping is tough for me. There are some underlining psychological reasons why. The thought of starting over ... the thought of who I was over four years ago terrifies me (even though I see her in the mirror every day). I feel like the whole world is moving forward and accomplishing goals as I sit on my ass. 

But maybe I need to go back to that article I referenced earlier. Maybe I need to practice a bit of patience. Maybe I need to take this time to re-evaluate my goals and embrace my "why" again. I can take this time to be grateful that I can still bike and swim (kinda). Reading other articles and posts about goals setting, many encourage you to step back from your goals and re-evaluate them and come up with new intentions, since often your life changes or you may not be making the progress you thought you should be making.

Trying to keep going when you are injured is not smart. I know I cannot complete the distance or speed I want to when running if I am injured. Crying while running is also not a good look!

So I am going to try to be patient and listen to my body. And eventually if not better I may need to go back to the doctors (UGH). And I will try not to think about everyone else running by me or that I will be sooooo out of shape!

I will share one thing before I end. I was challenged 25 days ago to do 25 pushups every day for 25 days. By doing this ritual you would bring awareness for PTSD anxiety and depression amongst members of the military. I completed the challenge but then challenged myself to continue through the end of the year. I will not be posting a video on Facebook, as the first challenge instructed you to do . However, I will be posting updates on Twitter and here in my blog. 88 more days until the end of the year. My twitter handle is @keepmovingmaura

100 Days to Go!

 

Yesterday was the first day of fall. The Autumnal Equinox began at 9:31 AM on Tuesday morning. Fall is my favorite time of year. The colors, the flavors, the smells and the cool brisk air makes me so happy! I will admit that I miss the longer days but when we have limited hours of sunlight, I believe it makes you appreciate the sun even more!

Well today, Wednesday September 23, 2020 I am celebrating 100 days left to this year!! This year, as we all know, has been a bit crazy and unpredictable. We have missed out on gatherings with family and friends, sporting events, races and so much more (too much to list). We as a country have rallied around front line workers but become divided over everything becoming a political issue. But I digress and it is not my plan to write about politics. 

It is my plan to celebrate these last 100 days. To embrace them and make the most out of them. During these 100 days I will try to break some bad habits that I started during this pandemic. I will go back to basics and try to improve what I started. I will continue something I started because it can only help not hurt and I will finish the year as I started it. What is all of this you ask...well let me explain.

At the start of 2020 I challenged myself to 100 days of journaling. It was something I embraced and found I really enjoyed. Although I am still journaling, I don't do it every day and some weeks it is only one day. So I am challenging myself again to take some time to write my thoughts down and embrace what isn't always easy. 

Recently I took on a challenge of 25 pushups a day for 25 days. I am 14 days into the challenge. I video tape myself and share it on social media to raise awareness for PTSD, anxiety and depression that result in suicide amongst men and women in the service. I also decided while I am down on the ground doing the pushups I would also throw in some planks and bridges. I announced at the end of the 25 days I would make a donation to a veterans organization, The Fisher Foundation.

Well I decided to continue this challenge for the next 100 days. I will continue the original challenge and post that on social media until I hit 25 days (11 days to go) but will continue with this until the end of 2020. I don't think I will video tape myself every day (I have to admit I don't like that) but I will figure out a way to share my accomplishments. And at the end of the 100 days I will make a second donation to an organization (to be determined).  I will admit I wonder if I can continue this one and it will be a challenge. But what do they say about challenges? They build character!?

I shared at the beginning I started some bad habits during this pandemic and with all of the changes going. Or maybe I broke some good habits that I want back. I have shared with you my struggles with getting focused on the research for my doctorate. I am distracted by the tv and what's on, and I have to admit I haven't found much. And I get distracted by wasting time on I don't know what but not anything important. So over the next 100 days I am challenging myself to dive into my school work. Work on it no matter what, get it done before I do anything else. I have wanted to accomplish this goal for so long...for over 30 years I can't give up now. So I am telling myself that every day I need to spend at least one solid hour doing my research and writing. You can do anything for 1 hour and you can accomplish a lot in 100 days!!

Finally, I am going back to basics. I need to limit my added sugar intake; lower my overall carbohydrate intake and increase my protein. This isn't any special diet it is what my body needs. If I increase my sugar intake and not pay attention to other things my body and GI track take a hit. I don't feel well and it can wreak havoc. I am not saying I am getting rid of everything because let's be honest some of the best holidays are coming up and that would be difficult. However, I need to pay attention and do what is best for my body in order to function properly. 

So I am embracing the next 100 days... the last 100 days of 2020 to do better and to be better. We have 100 days I can't be wasting time. 2020 wasn't all bad some good things happened. So with that I will not just wish my favorite time of year away, Fall, I will embrace it and try to make the best of the end of 2020!

#Keepmovingforward #Believe 

It was the best of times...it was the worst of times!

Through all my years of training for full and half marathons as well as triathlons of all levels I have discovered that you learn just as much, if not more, during a bad training day as you do during a great training day!

This weekend I had a 20 mile training run on the schedule. I decided I would do it on Saturday instead of Sunday to get it over with. I shared with a friend of mine that I had this scheduled and she asked, "are you ready?". I responded physically yes, I just need to stay out of my head. 

I had this brilliant idea that I would run the 20 miler during the last 4 hours of daylight. My thinking behind this was all of my training have been great when completing them after work compared to when I was doing them in the morning. So I got up, ran some errands and did some school work waiting for 3 pm, when I would start the run.

Around 2:30 I started to get ready. Bottles were full, stinger chews were lined up, one last trip to the fancy port-a-potty (the bathroom in my house) and I was off. I had my route mapped out. I would do a few different loops throughout my neighborhood giving me the option to return home to refill bottles and use the fancy port-a-potty. Things were going well.

Six miles down...return to top off the bottles. During the second loop I found myself drinking a lot more compared to the first loop and I was out of water by mile 10. I had two miles until I was home and my legs started to cramp...damn what was my body doing to me. I got back to my house, filled up my water bottles again and tried to start running again. My legs wouldn't move, they hurt, and I couldn't run another step. I ended up walking for an additional mile, thinking if I walked a bit I could start running again, that didn't work. I felt like I got hit by a Mack truck!

So what did I learn during all of this? Sometimes the best laid plans don't bring about the best results. Mentally I was ready for this run. I was excited to see if my brilliant plan would work. When it didn't and my body failed, I beat myself up. There was not one nice thing I was thinking about myself. So as I move forward into a new week I need to stay hydrated and let it go.

There is another 20 miler scheduled for Saturday! 

 

2190 days or six years!!!

 

On Friday I woke up and received this message from MyFitnessPal...I have logged my food for 2,190 days or six years straight! When I was ready to start losing weight I turned to MyFitnessPal to record my food and keep to a set amount of calories per day.

I wasn't perfect at first, I missed logging on some days. However, by the end of August I made a commitment to myself to log every day. The most important thing was I needed to be as honest as possible with my logging and myself. 

As I have shared in the past, a few months after losing my first 25 pounds and logging for several months, I was diagnosed with diabetes. Cuz you know everyone is diagnosed with diabetes after losing 25 pounds. Following the diagnoses I started working with a fabulous nurse practitioner who focused on my diabetes. I used the app MyFitnessPal to share with her what I was eating and also focus on the amount of carbohydrates I was taking in, so the logging continued! Six years later, I am still logging!

It keeps me accountable and feeling some what in control. Sometimes it is frustrating and I think why bother when I record everything but still the scale doesn't move. However, as an update in that category, the scale has been going down for the past four weeks. Slowly, 1/2 pound per week but it has been going down...Woo Hoo!!

It has been four weeks since I started my new job. I can't believe it. I have enjoyed it a lot and time is flying by. Throughout this time I have been trying to figure out my schedule and balance everything, workouts, school work, and work. I have been moving things around to see what works best. For several years I worked very hard at being a morning worker outer. I would get my workouts done, head to work and then head to the library to do my school work. 

I think mentally I took the summer off from school and I am working hard at getting that motivation back. This past week I thought I would try to change things up to see how I do. So for the five days this past week I worked out after work. I always hated working out after work because I would find the time to talk myself out of it. But this week something magical happen, I looked forward to the workouts and I had some incredible times and felt great completing the workouts.

Thursday I had a speed workout that was a 3x1 mile and I completed the workout with negative splits On Friday I had a speed workout that I worked so hard at achieving. Like many of you, I did not swim for four solid months. 6 weeks ago I started swimming again and worked hard week and week to bring my time back down to my average...I finally did it Friday night!! My average time was 1:57/100 yards. This was actually a fantastic time compared to my times even before the pandemic. 

This weekend was supposed to be the Cazenovia Triathlon. This tri is one of my favorites and its a tough course. Back in 2001 I did it for the first time, my second triathlon of my career and I was hooked. Well sadly like everything else it has gone viral. The funny part was I couldn't remember if I officially signed up for the race or not. I couldn't find my receipt or my registration on the race page so my coach and I agreed I must not have committed to it this year. Well wouldn't you know I actually did sign up for it this year, I received an email yesterday with instructions on how to complete the virtual race and my registration number was associated with the email. So I woke up this morning and decided to at least complete the bike and run portions of the race. And something pushed me today and I felt great. Fourteen miles on the bike and a 5K run with times I haven't seen in a long time or ever. I did the bike in under an hour (which is HUGE for me) and I had negative splits on the run!! I will do the swim portion this week at some point, which is my strength of the three disciplines. Oh how I miss racing!!!

Finally I had the opportunity to talk to a dear friend this afternoon. She has been struggling with her workouts and I have been struggling with my school work. I feel like mentally I just shut down during July and August, but summer is ending soon!! So we promised to push each other and hold each other accountable. We will do the text message check in. We will let each other know if we got up and got our workouts and/or school work done.

My plan is to do my school work in the morning before work and my workouts after work. I will keep doing this until I need to change something up. She would like to complete her workouts in the AM so Monday is day one. 

I shared with her that September 1 - December 31 is 122 days. It is my goal to work on my research for the next 122 days. Within those 122 days I will put official deadlines on my calendar that I will have to meet and submit to my advisor. The tough part about doing research compared to actual classroom work, there are not homework deadlines. I have to set those deadlines up and stick to them. I also set a finish line goal for myself. It is my goal and desire, to finish this research by September 1, 2021.

So here is to the next 122 days (or 123 if you count August 31). 

Wish Me Luck...Always striving to do better and be better...Keep Moving!!

You Win Some You Lose Some...

 

My water bottles were filled, my running clothes were waiting for me, and I had a plan. I went to bed and my alarm was set. I was ready to go as soon as the alarm went off!

Well the alarm rang and I woke up in a funk and a fog. I couldn’t get moving, I felt tired and my legs felt heavy. The original plan I had to run in a certain area, went out the window. I decided to get a few things done on my "to do" list, thinking it would inspire me to get going. I finally pushed myself out the door but as soon as I got moving I knew it wasn't going to be good. I was moving slower than usual and my legs were shot!

I got to the 1.10 miles mark, the corner of Dayton Street and Plumtree Road, and I already felt beat up at that point. If I turned right, the run would continue, if I turned left I could walk home and be done with it. I decided to turn right and dig deep to see what I could do this morning. Up and down some hills, in and out of the sun beating on me, in and out of neighborhoods and I was back to my house at mile 7. I refilled my water bottles and said to myself I could do this. But I decided to change locations. I headed to the park where I run often hoping it would be shaded and inspire me. I continued to push but during mile 10 I walked more than I ran and by 10.25 miles I knew I was done and had nothing left. I was supposed to do 15 this morning but I figured the 10.25 wasn't too bad since I was ready to quit at mile 1.10 miles.

I reached out to my coach to tell her about this horrific run. She told me to put it behind me and in the words of Coach Belichick, "We are on to Monday". This new week will be a clean slate to try it again! If you can see the awful times of my 10 miles, my average was 1 -2 minutes slower than normal. I had nothing in me! Moving on!!

So let's focus on some good things that happened this week. I started my new job. One week down. I am the Assistant Athletic Director for External Operations in the athletic department of a local college. Part of my job is being the oversight for certain athletic teams. I was giving four teams to work with, women's tennis, men's lacrosse, cross country/track & field, and women's triathlon!! Yes I am excited! 

Other things to be happy about. To the left is a picture of my very first marathon medal. It is a Tiffany Necklace, they were a sponsor of  

the race and when we crossed the finish line we were given a small Tiffany Blue Box wrapped in a white bow! I love this necklace and wore it every day for years. It reminded me of who I was and what I could accomplish. Well four years ago I was playing around with my neighbors dog and she jumped up on me and the necklace broke. I put it in a box and forgot all about it until I was packing to move. I recently brought it to a jeweler to be fixed and it is back around my neck! 

Something else to be happy about...Recently I received two medals in the mail to celebrate some accomplishments, completing two virtual challenges. During this time of Covid races, like so many other things, have been canceled. Race companies have been offering the competitive runners, cyclist, and triathletes virtual races or challenges to keep us going and focused. No these virtual events are not the same as the real thing but it helps pass the time. You can also earn some fun bling along the way. 

The first virtual challenge I did was a run around the 11 Finger Lakes of New York. I started this before I left New York. Although this challenge was virtual, complete 408. 2 miles, I have actually biked around 3 1/2 of the actual finger lakes in my lifetime. Someday I will go back and do more, but for now I completed this challenge in 6 weeks by biking and running.

Once I finished the finger lakes I went on to run and bike through the state of Massachusetts, a total of 262 miles. I completed this virtual challenge on Saturday, 27 days after I started. Similar to the finger lakes challenge I have actually biked through almost all of Massachusetts in 1997, 194 miles for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, The Pan-Mass Challenge. So two virtual challenges and the summer isn't even over...what will I do next? Tomorrow is a new day...Embrace It!!

Medal from the Finger Lakes Challenge! 

Medal from the Run Across Massachusetts