New Year - Same Me

Well we made it through the first day of 2016 - go us!

What is it about a New Year that is both so inspiring and completely panic inducing? I haven't been that great about setting "New Years Resolutions" the past couple of years. My goals are usually either too vague or too specific if you have not yet gathered this, there is not much grey-area in my life so I end up not knowing how to go about pursuing my vague goals or I miss one day of drinking warm water with lemon and cayenne in the morning and all is shot to hell.

Some people like to focus on shedding the baggage of the previous year, getting rid of what did not serve them, which I am all for. 2015 was a bitch. Not totally bad, not totally good, just bitchy. A lot of what went down is not my story to tell - there were career changes to varying degrees of success; movings out, movings in, movings back out; truly amazing people were lost; injuries came and went and came back again; harsh realties were faced. That's not to say 2015 didn't have it's great times, it most certainly did. But for me, it was what I like to call a "learning year."

So where exactly does that leave on 1/1/2016?

Well, I spent the last night of 2015 having a wonderful dinner with the two greatest parents a person could ever ask for. Then I went off to ring in the New Year with my sister, Guinness in one hand Champagne in the other. Yes I showered, put on makeup and real clothes, I also managed to get home at a reasonable hour AND take off said makeup before bed - if that's not adulting please tell me what is. 

What are you doing New Years Day?

A whole lot of nothing honestly. My ankle and ITB are still pretty angry at me, and while the last thing I wanted to do was to start a new year injured, I can now honestly say that missing one week of training is not worth doing any more permanent harm to my body. So it was Pure Barre ftw this morning, maybe 2016 will be the year I get abs and an ass? a girl can dream I cancelled my Weight Watchers account, which is big for me. I joined forever ago to lose the pounds I gained post-college and pre-running. It originally held me accountable for poor diet and exercise choices, but eventually turned into a restrictive obsession that was at odds with a heavy training load. See, major learning going on here I got my first day of free  coffee with my new Starbucks Tumbler  I love Chistmas presents. I made freaking Broiled Lamb Chops from my Runner's World Meals on the Run Cookbook Seriously, I love Christmas presents. And now I'm here taking to you fine people, getting ready for bed and focusing on all of the great things I already have to look forward to in 2016.

Tomorrow morning I am going to get up and try to have the best day I can, I think maybe that will be my 2016 Resolution.
Sorry Yoda. 

Found Dory!

I mean you're probably already aware, but if not.... Just. Keep. Swimming.

That's all.

-Stay caffeinated my friends

Girl Power, Sisters before Misters

Last week was a very odd combination of lots of good things and lots of really annoying things that just would not go away, I felt like I was trying to play Whack-a-Mole at times. By the time Friday came around I was just over the unnecessary worrying and tired of trying to control things that were in fact outside of my control. Which is when I came home to this.

Now, I worship at the church of Lauren Fleshman. Period. Not only is she an amazing athlete, creator of one of my favorite snacks (holla at ya Picky Bar), Oiselle elite, and an all around bad-ass. I swear she is also psychic. Whatever stupid crap happens to be going on in my life, running related or otherwise, Lauren Fleshman will appear in some form with the most insanely ridiculously appropriate advice and I'm just like YES.
For example:
When I basically broke the left side of my body and was having a complete meltdown about being injured, she posted this story about her Achilles - Ask Lauren Fleshman


When I was terrified of attempting to run the Marine Corps Marathon after said injury, this popped up as Runner's World QOTD

I'm down to my last Picky Bar and have a Oiselle Wishlist out the Oisoo (hahahahah) she's like here, let me give you a discount on all your favorite things.



...and I have just come to the realization that LF is actually my Fairy Godmother...so add that to her list of accomplishments.

The girl crushing continued on Saturday when I got to spend some much needed quality time with my Mom and Sister getting ready for my Cousin's "Engagement Party." Aka it wasn't a real engagement party, we just all happened to be getting together and will use any excuse necessary to buy large quantities of Champagne and make multiple trips to Michael's. The McCrystal girls far outnumber the men in both quantity and volume, so it was obviously all about us Saturday night.

A video posted by Kaitlyn McCrystal (@ktmccrystal) on Nov 9, 2015 at 9:35am PST

 And the Happy Couple, of course.

We're going to politely gloss over the majority of Sunday morning, as said Champagne and cookies took quite the toll on my poor sad body. But sometimes you really just need an excuse to load up the DVR with Quantico and crush on Priyanka Chopra and that chick from UnREAL who was also on Greek and you just kind of hate to love. I could have quite literally spent all day moping on the couch. But this chick decided to win the Big Sur Half Marathon, and I was like ok Kara would want me to get up and be productive.

Been a long time since I broke the tape! Thank you for all the support today! 71:13. Onward and upward!! ❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/bEzTvBr2C2— Kara Goucher (@karagoucher) 

So in her honor, I pulled on my KG Tights, Oiselle trials hoodie, and managed to do semi-productive (normal people things) like laundry, errands and a quick 3-mile recovery run + conditioning. This is why you should always ask yourself WWKGD because chances are it's a lot better than whatever you're currently doing. [unless you are watching Quantico, because it's just a really good show and I'm sure Kara would agree].

Life is a whole lot better when you're surrounded (physically and digitally?) by people who inspire you. I was reminded this weekend that I am a lucky did, let's see how long the warm and fuzzies last when faced with weekdays!

-Stay caffeinated my friends