Friday Five: 5 Things in 5 Years - Dreams, Wishes & Goals

After posting yesterday about my 2016 plans, I saw that this weeks Friday Five topic was "Five Things I'll be Doing 5 Years from Now".   Which is ironic because lately I've been thinking a lot about the future and my various goals and dreams.  So I'm hopping on the Friday Five bandwagon and playing along with Courtney, Cynthia and Mar.

Five years from now it will be 2020.  Which sounds so crazy.  I will be 49 years old, which sounds even crazier.  G will be almost 55!!!  WOW.  We're OLD, ha ha.  I really love our life now and I hope it doesn't change TOO much but there are some things that I'd like to see happen. Some of them will take a lot of hard work, some of them will take a giant leap of faith and some will cost money.  But, that's life, right? 

1.  TRIATHLON:   Every year, I always have some kind of goal or game plan in terms of my running and triathlon season.  Sometime in the next couple of years, I want to crack the top 5 in my AG at the 70.3 distance.  And I want to get a spot and actually GO to the 70.3 World Championships.  I could have taken a spot in Luxembourg but the goal at that point in time was for G and I to qualify together and go together.  He didn't end up racing so I didn't end up taking the spot.   My running goals may have to be revisited as I am getting older but I'd still love to break 20 minutes for a 5km, hit 1:25 for a half marathon and break 3:15 for a marathon.  I've got to lose 6s on my 5km time, 2 minutes and 12s for my half marathon time and 1 minute and 3s for my marathon time, ha ha. 

2.  LIVING:   G and I have lived in Toronto all of our lives.  G's job with GE (General Electric) has him working in the U.S. a couple of times a month.  All of his teams are in the U.S. but we live in Toronto.  He works from home when he's not traveling.  We had the opportunity to move to Chicago but opted not to because it wasn't necessarily *that* different from Toronto.  We've both decided that if we're going to leave Toronto, it's going to be for somewhere a bit more temperate.  We could both do without the brutal Canadian winter.  When the right opportunity comes along, we'll definitely take it.

3.  LEARNING:   As a running and triathlon coach, I think the best way I can serve my athletes is by continuing to learn.  There are a few things I'd like to get under my belt over the next few years.  1) my CanFitPro certification and 2) I'd love to take the Human Foundations course with Naudi Aguilar from Functional Patterns.  

4.  TRAVEL:  We don't have kids, so it's fairly easy for us to travel and it's something both of us like to do.   Since I've gotten over my fear of flying, my desire to travel and explore has skyrocketed, especially after last years European Adventure.  I'd love to go back to Europe again.  Ideally for another race but if not, that's perfectly ok too.  I'd also love to explore a few more tropical places like St. Lucia, Barbados and Antigua.

Nice, France

Bassano del Grappa, Italy

5.  COACHING:   Right now, I limit the number of athletes I coach simply because I have a full time job which can be quite busy and I want to make sure each athlete gets a good amount of attention.  When it's busy I hardly have time for myself let alone other people.  I'd love to be able to expand my roster of athletes knowing that I could look after each and every one of them properly.   Essentially that would mean quitting my full time job as a producer and leaving my "second family" that I've been with for the last 15 years.  Not an easy thing - but change is never easy.  The other issue, obviously, is money.  Even if I took on 20 athletes, that still wouldn't bring in enough money to pay the bills, so I'd have to look at taking on a part time job.  But that might not be a bad thing.

So many things to think about.....

Do you have your goals mapped out or do you go with the flow and see where life takes you?

Head on over to the link up and check out the other posts!  

#GoalGetter2013 - July Edition

If I thought June was less than ideal then July was an EPIC FAIL.  July was so insane I don't even remember what I had set out to do.  I do know that the month chewed me up and spit me out just in time for my vacation.  All my grand plans flew right out the window as work came flooding in just before the long weekend.  I still managed to squeeze in 2 races though despite having to work on one weekend.  Yeah it was that kind of busy.  Who wants to work weekends in the summer?!  That's right....NO ONE.  But it had to be done because deadlines can only apparently move so much until they drop dead.

The one thing I definitely managed to do this month was start doing my long runs again.  Everything else I had hoped to do such as:

* get the third swim in a week

* get on my bike twice a week

* do a plank a day

*get back out with my run group on a regular basis

never really happened.  I think I can count on ONE hand how many times I managed to ride twice in one week (I think that happened twice).  I think I made it out to my run group a total of 3 times and the third swim a week was only in my dreams.

But whatever, things don't always go according to plan.  All you can do is pick yourself up and get back on the horse, wagon, bike or whatever it was you fell off of and keep moving forward.

It looks like August will also be somewhat busy but, given that I'm taking the first week of it off, I may not have to deal with some of the jobs that are coming in now so I might have a bit of a reprieve when I get back (fingers crossed!)

I'm not going to overwhelm myself with too many mini goals this month.  The big one is to make sure I get my runs in because I've officially registered for The Scotiabank Half on October 20th.  This is my second "A race" of the year.  This is the one where I try to break 1:30.  So it's time to start cranking things up. 

How are you doing with your 2013 goals? 

Goal Getters 2013 - May Update

Well here we are...June 1st.  Half way through 2013.  WTH??  When did THAT happen?  I had a few goals in May to try to keep me accountable and well, let's just say this month wasn't the best in terms of hitting goals.  I'm not really sure why, perhaps I just needed to take a mental break from being so goal oriented.  This month wasn't a complete wash out.  I still incorporated some of the things I wanted to, I just didn't do as much of them as I had hoped to.

My big goal was to work on my flexibility and start going to yoga on regular basis.  I went ONCE last month.  I did, however, really focus on stretching and foam rolling after every workout, especially weights.  That has to count for something, right?

My next goal was to get back on the bike on a regular basis and I'm happy to report that has happened.  I now try to ride twice a week.  One long ride on the weekend and a shorter more intense one during the week.  That seems to be working out well.

I've also been trying to aim for at least 2500m every time I swim.  I started off really strong at the beginning of the month but I've now been bumped up a lane again and I'm swimming with folks that are a whole lot faster than me so of course, I'm dying a whole lot sooner than I normally would.  My last two swims I've only managed 2200m and 2100m respectively.  But I know that will change.  I'll get used to the pace and be able to hang on...eventually.

As for getting back on the #plankAday bandwagon...well that has been sporadic to say the least.  I was good for the first week of May and then the wheels feel off that wagon.  I think I was averaging 3, maybe 4 times a week vs. every day.  Oh well.  Something to improve on for next month.

Speaking of which, I suppose I have to work on the above listed items before I can move on to anything else, really.  However, I'm going to add one more thing in - get back out and run with my run group on a more consistent basis.  October will be here before I know it and if I want to break 1:30, I've got to get some speed in the bank.

Make sure you check in with the rest of the ladies in this group.  I know they've all been pretty busy chasing their goals!

• Abby from Back at Square Zero (IG: backatsquare0)
• Kat from Sneakers and Fingerpaints (IG: katsnf)
• Kate from Run with Kate (IG: runwithkate)
• Mindy from Mindy’s Fitness Journey (IG: mindyartze)
• Mindy from Road Runner Girl (IG: roadrunnergirl)
• Rebecca from Rebecca Roams (IG: RebeccaRoams)
• Sarah from Mom Running On Empty (IG: momonempty)
•  Gina from Noshing on Asphalt (IG AsphaltNosher)

The Next Steps

To those of you that don't know me very well, I'll let you in on a little secret.  I'm a planner and I'm beginning to think it's somewhat of a compulsion.  I'm never content to just "be" in the moment,  I'm always thinking about the future, be it my next race, the next job, or what I'm going to do next year.  It's a bit ridiculous.   Right now, I should probably be mapping out my training plan for NYC and working on finessing my friend Kirsten's half marathon training plan.  But what am I doing instead?

Thinking about next summer.

Seriously?  This summer has barely just started and I'm already on fast forward to next summer.  Typical.

What specifically am I thinking about, you may wonder.  Ah.  There's the rub.

I'm thinking about running through the woods for a very long time.  Perhaps here or here.  I'm contemplating running a 50km trail race.  My first choice would be the Sulphur Springs race at the end of May and that might be the most ideal time as I will be coming off Boston in mid-April.  My concern, and it may seem silly, is that I might not like it.  With a road race, especially a marathon, there are usually a lot of people around.  Trail races tend to be smaller so it would stand to reason that there are less people around.  Given that they are run on trails in the woods, that also means that there are generally very few spectators.  I don't know about you but during a marathon, I need that human contact, that support, even if it's from one single person standing by the side of the road clapping.   So perhaps the smarter thing to do would be to do the 25km and see what I think.  OR, perhaps I whet my appetite with some shorter races in the 5 Peaks Series and then tackle the longer distances in 2014.  That might be the smarter thing to do.  And of course, these are all just thoughts, I've yet to commit to anything. 
I've run one trail race and that was last summer.  It was the Rattlesnake Point Sport Course in the 5 Peaks Series.  It was fun but man was it tough.  That particular course is very technical.  Lots of rocks and tree roots so there was a lot of jumping, leaping and scrambling vs. actual running.   My heart was in my throat for most of the run and I'm sure my eyes were like saucers in my head.  Open big, wide and round.  I'm not even sure I blinked at all come to think of it.  It was such a different experience than road racing.  When I'm running on the road, I get into a groove and I tend to relax and get tunnel vision.  On the trail I felt like I was hyper aware of everything around me.   All of my senses were on overdrive.   It was amazing.  I tried to figure out if I could get any more trail races in last summer but I couldn't manage it.  I hoped that perhaps this summer I might get the chance to do another couple of races but given the other races I want to do and the goals that I've set for my fall season, well, I may just have to wait till next year.  I'm ok with that, it gives me something else to plan for.


Do you plan out your races in advance or do you just train and then wing it?

Have you ever done a trail race?  If not, do you plan on doing one?

(photo credit: Phaedra Kennedy)