Under pressure

I feel like the song Under Pressure is just looping through my brain right now.  We are SO busy at work right now and while it's a super good thing, it's also not a good thing because I don't have enough guys some days to cover everything and money is super tight, since no one is paying their bills.  I am super duper stressed right now, but I shall survive.  I also need to see people for what they are, customers, not friends.  If they don't want to pay us for work we have completed, they are screwing my business and they should no longer be treated as a friend.  It's just business right?  Somedays I feel like I made the biggest mistake ever trying to be a business person.  These last few years have for sure taught me a lot about me, what I am capable of, and what I am NOT capable of.  I guess that's growth right?  Stepping outside of your comfort zone and trying new things, even if they don't work is learning right?  

 

Monday/Tuesday:  4 miles of easy/Pilates class.  Both days were cold, but manageable.  I love winter running!  Tuesday I got my adjustment and then started my new class.  We were calling it "Pilates", but really it's us learning how to do exercises correctly while working the correct muscles at all times.  I feel like that is so crucial and so overlooked.  Form is very important, but also making sure you are even working what muscles you are suppose to work is key.  We took 2 moves, the plank and the squat and worked through form and function.  We worked through adaptations to make sure you are using the correct muscle and not compensating,  Let's just say I was super duper sore the next day and just breathing was rough.  I love that my chiro can take moves and make them work and give you a work out that doesn't leave you walking out drenched in sweat.  

Wednesday/Thursday: Rest days.  I felt like I was starting to come down with the crud that was going around.  I was planning on a rest day Wednesday and Thursday just happened because I felt horrible.  Plus, I had had therapy Thursday morning and it was rough.  Like super rough.  Like all of this mess with work is triggering me to bring up past trauma and relive it.  I keep thinking I am healed, but this proves I am not.  Sigh.  SO much work to do. 

Friday:  4 miles/tempo run.  I felt SOOOO good, so I just tried to push myself to the edge of hard and stay there.  Talk about the most stressful of stressful days.  Our work is so amazingly busy, but you have to have money to make money and our bank is not totally wanting to help us.  We have a meeting Monday to discuss options and I hope they are open to continuing to help a local business.  My payroll alone is 15K a week right now and I need working capital to keep going.   I am praying that they help us and not that they shut us down.  We have so many great customers who use us and trust us and I love helping them.  I am not ready to throw in the towel with what my husband and I have built and I am ready to fight.

Saturday:  11 miles.  Whoops, 10 miles.  It was a beautiful day and while our run felt great, my running partner only needed 10, so when we got back to the house, I had no desire to run 1 more.  It was a bit muddy, but the dogs seem to love it anyway and the time flew by.  I love that Melly and I are getting out and getting some miles together.  We use to run every morning, but I switched to afternoon/night running, which didn't fit into her schedule.  I am much much slower than she is however I feel like it's good for her to slow down sometimes and take it easy on her runs.

Sunday:  Rest day.  Chief's day.  Let's go BIG RED!  I did more anxiety cleaning and was basically a sloth.  I needed it.  I woke up with super bad anxiety and I just needed to do what my body needed for the day.  Later we watched the Chiefs claw their way to another Super Bowl appearance.  

To end here is what we are going through work wise, long version.  We are slammed, like totally slammed. Three sets of my guys are working commercial work with their apprentices.  I only have one guy doing residential work and he is booked out till March.   The problem is that we aren't getting paid for our work quickly, as we are doing lots of commercial work that only pays once a month post you turning in your pay apps and the GCs we are working with are a bit behind in payments.  We are owed over 141K right now in AR and we have lots of big jobs coming up that could potentially make us even more money.  We need working capital to continue and we are not sure our current bank is willing to do that for us. We have been very, very careful with debt this entire time.   We have a talk scheduled for Monday and I am praying and praying that our bank is not going to give up on us and help us find that working capital we need to continue.  We are an LLC, but they have already tied our only real asset outside of our business, our house, into one of our loans.  Sigh.  I am not sure how much longer I can continue doing this.  The stress is killing both my hubby and I and we have a little boy that needs us.  I have started to look for other jobs just in case I need to bail, but even then unless I go back to industry, my little measly pay check only won't be of much help.  We have tried to be smart about our debt, but as I have said you have to have money to make money and we may have to get outside of our comfort zone and carry more debt to continue.  We have built a great thing in our business with a great reputation.  I am not ready to give this up, but without an infusion of cash to continue, that just doesn't happen.  Please, if you are the praying type or just the good vibes type, send us what you have.  We have built something really good and I am not ready to give it up for both our customers and for our electricians and their families.  

Have a great week y'all!

Winter can be cool on a cut back week

Another roller coaster week of weather and temps.  Started out amazing, highs in the 50s.  Then cold.  Then ice/rain/snow.  Luckily it was a cut back week so mileage was super low and could be chunked anyway I needed to chunk it.   Also, Wamego Tournament time!   Our home toury and my favorite of all the tournys.  Let's GOOOOOOO!

Monday:  Easy day/4 miles.  This is a cut back week so the mileage was pretty low.  I could do three 3s and a 5 for my long run or I could change them up just in case we had bad weather.  I can do dreadmill runs hanging on for dear life but I need 3 miles or less.  I should have gone for 5, but I was huffing and puffing for no reason.  This seems to be happening more and more and feels just like how I feel when I am dealing with high humidity...except there is no humidity to speak of right now.

Tuesday:  Easy day/3 miles.  Usually I do speed work on this day BUT with running Sunday and Monday and having a big adjustment made me not want to push my luck.  I decided to just take it easy and enjoy the run.  I still was a little huffy puffy, but not as bad as Monday.  

Wednesday/Thursday/Friday:  Rest day/Club meeting/Rest day.  Almost 3 hours of great conversation on how we can better promote our club.  Yes please.  Adults all with the same goal = the kids, working towards that goal and nothing else is my jam!  Thursday morning I woke up with a horrible sore throat and fatigue, but no other symptoms.  I wanted to go to back bed all day long, but I made it through.  I figured one more day with it being a cut back week of nothing would be okay.  I had a soul crushing day on Friday with difficult customers and other life circumstances.  

I will say this.  Something happened that I was expecting to happen with a customer that was a past friend.  I knew this outcome would happen because the whole project had been a struggle, a lot of he said she said with two VERY different stories being told.  We documented everything just in case.  We are being threatened with a lawsuit if we try and get the money rightful owed to us which is over 12k.  We were just asking for 6k to try and at least pay for our materials used.  We have lots of options including liens on their property and collections, but is it worth it?   It's one of those cases were we know the truth, everyone around us knows the truth, but is it worth fighting?   They have screwed over so many families through out their existence in our area, but are we the ones to finally stop them?  We have SO much itemized evidence.  Bullies shouldn't win, yet they do again and again. A huge part of me says just walk away, take the hit, and move on.  The other part of me says, yet again, the bad guys won in my life and why does this keep happening to me so STAND UP AND FIGHT BITCH! Still sitting with this one and deciding.  Getting some professional law advice as well, since we have such great documentation of how we did deviate from the initial scope over and over again thus incurring more cost, per the homeowner's request.  

Saturday:  Long run/7 miles.  I decided 5 was not enough and I didn't want to run just 2, so I combined the 2 miler with the 5 miler and made a 7 miler for the weekend.  It started snowing half way into our run and it was a quiet magical snow.  Melly and I caught up and 7 miles was done before we knew it.  

Sunday:  Tournament day!  Our tournament director was able to build a very good round robin for Andrew meaning 3 matches, two of which he should have been able to win.  Whelp, that is not how the day went and I my heart really goes out to my kid.  He is really struggling in tournaments and while the coaches are telling me to keep entering him, I think we are making a huge mistake. His ability is slowly coming, but his drive and heart isn't there yet.  I am not sure if it ever will be. I love this sport so much for what it does for him physically and mentally, but I am not sure he will ever and that breaks my heart.  We have one more month of tournaments and getting his partner ready for districts.  He is also going to be doing some private instruction with a coach who has expressed interest in helping him.  Everyone that sees him in the wrestling room says he has improved SO much this year, but it's just hard to believe when all we see are him in tournaments and failure.  It's also hard because he realizes all of his friends are really super good and he is lagging behind.  Even his partner is starting to win pretty regularly.  So I am in a conundrum.  I want him to finish out the season and then we can re evaluate next year.  I think if he would just stick with it till middle school, he would love it.  Shorter season and for sure shorter practices.  Plus, lots of kids bloom in middle school because puberty and them growing into their own bodies.  Unfortunately I could be totally, totally wrong.  What to do, what to do.  

Back at it next week!  23 miles to cover with an 11 mile long run.  Let's hope the weather cooperates this week!

Spring time in January

Not going to lie, I could totally live in a place 24:7 that is in the 30s in the morning, warms up to the 60s in the afternoon, and then gets cold again at night with NO WIND.  The beginning of this week was perfect and then we got ice and snow and then back to perfect.  Take your meds mother nature!  At least we aren't getting flooded like California or tornadoes like the south right now.  

Monday:  4 miles easy.  Probably should have done 5 as it was so nice outside.  I think the farmer's almanac was smoking something when it said we were going to have a horrible winter, as other than the bomb cyclone, it's been very mild with little to no precip.  Knocking on wood as I type these sentences.

Tuesday:  Speedwork/4miles.  Song intervals.  I started with some Lizzo, but ended up popping over onto my Sirius XM app and cueing up some Soul Cycle.  I know that sounds crazy, but they have a great channel that has hits that fit perfectly with running.  After a warm up, I did two cycles of every song change starting easy, medium, and hard effort, going back down to medium, easy, and then starting the cycle again till I hit 4 miles.  I made sure I had at least half a mile if not more for a cool down.  Boom doesn't seem to be a fan of speedwork unless we are heading towards the house.  He's a big goofball.  

Wednesday/Thursday:  Rest day/Board meeting.  We've been having pretty lengthy board meetings lately because we are really trying to plan something special this year.  Our number one goal is to make everything about the children and make it less and less about the adults that seem hell bent on ruining a good thing.  Thursday I just wanted after a very stressful day at work, to go home and get on my pjs and watch racing.  This week is all about the Chili Bowl in Tulsa with racing every night and it's one of my most favorite times of the year.  They have heats, qualifiers, lower mains and A mains all in one night each night.  I love it!  It's so thrilling and it keeps me up late every night from Monday till it wraps up on Saturday. 

Friday:  Easy 4.  The sun was still up when we headed out!  While I don't love summer, I do love running in the sun when the sun isn't trying to bake me.  

Saturday:  Wrestling. I really wish I had a better report. I had hoped that having a bigger tournament would make things better for Andrew with weights and competition.  He was once again grouped with the 130 pounders and was in a bracket instead of a round robin.  Plus, we had one match and then sat for hours before our next match. I worked a table as a spotter all day and helped Cassie with the computer.  Well, she worked the computer and I just hoped she never had to leave.  Andrew actually went 3 rounds with his second kid before the kid got him down in the 3rd period.   We have one more tournament here at home and then he is done with tournaments for the year.  The goal shifts to getting his partner ready for districts.  

Sunday:  Long run/9 miles.  Went to bed early, got up later, and headed out around 9:30 am.  It was a beautiful morning.  Boom made a friend over by the feed lot.  We had to distract so our doodle friends could get by because they are not fans of cats.   We also ran up on what we are pretty sure was an eagle getting a snack.  They left us some evidence to take a look at.  

We got some pictures but you really can't see the eagle at all thanks to the uber blue sky.

Also, later in the day we made a very grown up purchase and got a new fridge!  Ours has been dying a slow death for months now and we have been limping it along and the final straw happened Saturday night when the fridge part just quit cooling altogether. I am sure we could have paid to get it fixed but with a tween in the house that likes to eat and drink at night, we needed the room.  I have always wanted a double door fridge with the bottom being a freezer and I finally got my dream fridge!

We were very lucky that it was in stock and we had rebates we could use to get the price down a little bit.  I am so excited to fill it since we had to pretty much throw everything out that we previously had in there.  I am also looking at beer fridges so that beer can be kept somewhere else. Stay tuned LOL!  

21 miles total for the week and slowly working back towards 4-5 being my base versus 3.  Of course we have a cut back week coming up, but then it's all upwards passed that I think.  I also found out I am honey stinger ambassador again this year.  While I am super excited for the discounts I get as an ambassador, I feels super bad because I don't a) run many races anymore b) post to social media with 500 hashtags like I am suppose to and c) participate in all of the activities you are suppose to as deemed by the powers that be in the portal.  I just don't have the time I once had to do all the things and I feel super guilty.  I still buy their products and use their gear, but the guilt is there.  I keep thinking every year they will cut me lose but every year they bring me back.  I guess I should just be thankful until it ends.  

Have a great week y'all!

Am I training, Yes I'm training

Oh boy. 2023.  Hi.  What's up.  Welcome.  Please be kind, okay?  I think 2022 was better, still not best, but better.  I have really found a tribe of strong women that have really helped me through some shit.  You don't need a huge tribe, but you need a tribe, or should I say people like me who overshare and need to talk through every.single.thing need a good tribe.  I've finally found that and it makes life so much easier.  I have friends who share nothing.   They keep everything super close to the vest.  I am not one of those.  Thus the reason for my blog.  I know in 2023 I will continue to lean on those ladies and I hope they are up for the FULL Michelle challenge!!!!

Monday:  Day off from work.  Again.  I am so confused at this point.  What day is it?  Don't get me wrong, I love having days off, but so many lately has been overkill.  I still do several things every day even on weekends for our small business, so there really aren't many true days off.  While I took New Year's day off from running to just rest and be with my fam bam, I was ready to go Monday morning.  We have decided to us our couch to 50K program again for both of us and see how it goes.  Rockin Robin is running the 9 hour and I the 12, with Melly coming along for the 6.  My goal is still run/walk as much as I can and what I get is what I get.  Instead of following the plan to a T, we are taking the long run for the week and keeping that constant, but the rest of the miles we are divvying up and running them how and when we feel like.  As long as we get the weekly total, we will be happy.  That way if we feel good, we run more that day and if we feel badly, we run less and make up for it when we feel good.  We felt good so we got in 4 in the misty weird weather.  Thunderstorms in January later?  Okay?

Tuesday: Y'all, I did yoga!!!  Who am I?   We have been having 50 degree days and we had had a big temp drop and neither Robin nor I were looking forward to running with 20 mph winds.  We decided to move our speedwork to Wednesday and just do strength or cross.  I chose yoga because it is something iI can do right before bed and feel good about doing (when I can turn my brain off).  Of course Boom thinks it's great because I am sitting still and he can lick my feet, one of his many weird quirks.  

Wednesday: Speedwork.  We did a Joy to the Run work out of X to the T where we had a 5 minute warm up, 1 minute hard/1 minute easy x 10 and then cool down till we hit 3 miles.  We both agree we are loving one day a week of short speedwork and that we need to keep it up.

Thursday:  Planned strength but ended up rest.  Somedays you just have to do what is best for you and that was what my body needed for that night.  I was falling asleep at 8:30 pm, I was so exhausted.  Also, Andrew has been super creative lately and has also been bringing some amazing art work home. I love it!

Friday:  Easy 3.  Boom and I headed out to take it easy and get three on the gravel.  It was a beautiful night and Boom wanted me to STOP taking his picture LOL!  I also took Stella to the vet before my run.  Her allergies have been really bad lately and I am at wit's end to try and help her be comfortable.  We have tried OTC allergy meds, supplements, we did the whole fecal transfer thing, and we have tried Chinese herbs.  Nothing was working and she was starting to rub her face, just like Deuce did.  We are going to do a round of steroids and then put her on apoquel again.  Sigh.  I fear she is going to have to live on apoquel the rest of her life and it's so freaking expensive. I guess whatever brings her comfort because every time I try and wean her off of it, she goes right back to full fledged allergies.  We also discussed her many bumps.  Not going to lie, when we started talking about her mammary tumor, I had a complete and total melt down.  I feel so bad for Dr. M and Izzy as they have seen me at my worst lately.  I just can't bear the thought of losing Stella to cancer.  It kills me.  We are hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.  Cell stains should be done by next week.  

Saturday: 7 per the schedule.  It was the perfect morning for a run.  Lots of snow geese out in the fields, and we saw trumpeter swans thanks to our friends on our running route pointing them out.  After the run, I got coffee to warm up at my favorite coffee shop and later, we headed to Manhattan to watch the Chiefs play.  All of the games lately have been on ESPN and that is one streaming channel we don't get of course.  Andrew wasn't thrilled, but we left before the game was over since the Chiefs were winning by so much.  I had two amazing beers, the Thicc Boi which was a very nice stout and the snickerdoodle which was a lager I believe with lots of spices.

  

Sunday:  Rest day:  Wrestling.  I had high hopes for this tournament.  It was suppose to be yet another smaller tourny and I had hoped the really heavy hitters would be heading to another more competitive tourny.  That would be a nope and a nope.  Andrew had dropped about 6 lbs from being sick, so was at 112 meaning too heavy for 110, but super light for 120.  I am not about cutting weight, so it was give up several pounds and pray.  When i checked the brackets before we left for Topeka, he only had 2 matches.  Sigh.  Not really worth the drive, but mat time is mat time and I am still hoping he would get lucky and get that ever elusive win.  He works so hard, just never sees the result.  I am not sure if it's some sort of competition nerve thing or what. I certainly had horrible nerves for many years showing my dogs, but I just don't remember having that playing sports.  I should say that I always played team sports, so maybe that was it?  Maybe I would have experienced similar had I a chance to compete in some sort of individual sport?  It's hard not to be disappointed as all of his coaches have been telling us about how awesome he has been doing in practice.  As always, the biggest complaint is where is the aggression?  Where is that fire they see in practice?  He partner also got pretty beat up but did manage to win one match.  We have two more tournaments to get through, both much bigger and hopefully with less of a weight spread (and also hopefully more kids in his bracket with his skill level).

Have a great week y'all!

Joy to the Run BONUS WEEK

 

Y'all, on Monday I practiced what I preach and had a sloth like do nothing day for no reason other than I could.  We had Monday off  from the office, and while I did do a tiny bit of work, I stayed in my PJs all day!  I worked on my year end blogs and watched my kiddo tackle yet another Lego set as we both inhabited the dining room table for our work/sloth session.  

Tuesday was easy run and with Robin and the doodle girls and Wednesday was speed.  I was NOT feeling the 20 second sprint, 20 second recover, but I pushed myself on the run portions and allowed myself to walk on the recover portion and made it through.  

I got in Boom's snow suit and boots.  Let's just say he was less than thrilled and was frozen in place once I got it on.  I hope he can see the beauty of it when it's super cold again or we have to run in snow.  I didn't tempt fate by putting his booties on too. 

All week I have wished we were in Tulsa at the Tulsa shoot out.  Several of our friends are racing down there or I should say their kiddos.  It's hard to sit back and watch from home, but I don't miss the uber late nights and the hurry up and wait.  Our sponsored driver moved up from Junior Sprints last year to Restricted micros this year and he made the qualifier for the first time in the class!!!  We are SO proud of him!

Love this picture that his dad took of him getting ready to go out on the track.  For his first year, he has learned a lot and improved every race.  If my kid would just try dirt, we would never look back to pavement!

Got one run on the weekend.  Did a longish run of 6 on Saturday and sweated our butts off.  This is one weird winter, going from -28 to 50.  Loved the clouds on our run.

I did not get my yoga or my circuit done this week.  I would like to blame the fact that my monthly friend visited and one night I sat on the heating pad all night and the other night I was just exhausted  thanks to said friend, but those are just excuses.  I am excited for my class to start in January, so I have NO excuses.  

Have a great week y'all!

2022 Crunching the Numbers

Okay so my first thought was...do I have to write this?  YES!  I love going back and reading over these posts and seeing what I did or didn't do.  It's good to see the bad or the good that happens in a year.  It motivates me or it let's me know that it's okay.  Here goes nothing (a whole bunch of inspirational quotes that have spoken to me all year long)!

Races in 2022:

Only two this year a 50k and a half.  Had a third planned but Andrew's football tournament took over and I am so glad I watched him play instead of running.  That may be the theme for the next 8 years but I am okay with that.  It may mean waiting till the last minute to enter races instead of my usual entering wayyyy in advance.  

First was the 0 Mile Flint Hills 50K.  This was a new race and a new racing RD and they knocked it out of the park.  Mile 90 photographs, mostly flat fun gravel and scenic views, and cold temps made it a great race......till my body shut down with 6 miles to go.  We were able to walk and run as much as we could and got it done.  SO excited to have Boom get his first ultra under his belt.  He did am amazing job and I have no doubt he will be a great dog to race with.

The second race was the Ultrapalooza out at the same trail and same RDs.  I love this "trail" because it's just like what I train on.  I know there can be arguments that it isn't technically a trail since it's just crushed limestone over a rail bed, but I still count it as a trail race.    Unfortunately on this day, this race was SUPER humid and the only thing that kept us from dropping was the overcast skies and the constant misting of humidity moisture.  I was ready to pull boom at any moment if that sun came out, but it stayed behind the clouds and we got it done.  I am so proud and amazed by the people who ran 50 miles and 100 miles in those conditions.  WOW.      Fall races just aren't going to be our jam unless they are super late fall.  Even in October in Kansas, you might be up against 100 degree days and super high humidity.  

Check out the recaps on both and the good, the bad, and the ugly recaps with the amazing Mile 90 photos.  

Total miles:

As always Garmin and Strava differ.  Strava had me at 794.2 miles total, but I may be able to stretch that to a little over 800 by year end.  At one time it said 900 and something and then it changed.  Not sure why.  I feel like 800 is probably more accurate with me making my base 3 miles versus the 5 I use to do.  Garmin had me at 797.2 with the miles I will run this week.  Either way both is much lower than I normally do and that again is okay.  I had no goals this year other than run my two races and honor my body.

2022 Goals

Which brings me to my goals based on last year:

1.  Strength training once a week:  A big fat F.  I had hoped based on my doing the Joy to the Run program that I would be able to take the at least once session a week into the new year.  It just didn't work.  I am super busy and this year just getting in my runs was enough with my kid's busy schedule.  Yes, I can get up super early and get stuff done, but not going to lie, putting all my runs and work outs back to night time has made my life SO much better.  I no longer feel like a walking zombie, even when I am a little amped up and can't go to sleep right at 10 pm.  This only puts my running partners and I at odds because they are both earlier risers, but we still get occasional weekend runs together.

2.  Nutrition.  This was also an F and I have GOT to get it under control.  I am almost the weight I was when I was 9 months pregnant with Andrew, and that is about 40 lbs more than my goal weight, which is still way more than what I need to be at according to the doctor.  My eating is out of control, my beer consumption is out of control, and my sweets are off the chart.  I have looked into several very expensive programs as well as medical weight loss options, but I haven't been able to pull that pin and commit.  My knees and joints are complaining loudly ,but I trudge on and the scale keeps going up.  Not sure what to do with this one as the motivation has to come from within and it's just not there yet.  

3.  Listen to my body:  FINALLY AN A + . I have kept up with my weekly or every other week chiro appointments and that is probably the ONLY way I have stayed on the road with the extra 40 lbs.  If I have an ache or pain, I get with Dr. Kelli and we get a plan in place for exercises and adjustments.  I also have not felt guilty for any rest days or missing any runs.  If anything this year has taught me I can do hard things on way less mileage than any plan has on it, and that gets me to the start line healthy and injury free.  

2023 Goals

1. Strength training:  I am excited to say that I am going to take a class this winter that I am hoping will ignite that desire to get back to lifting and all the things. My chiro is starting up a Pilates class in Wamego and I beyond excited to join.  Her focus is form not speed, with small movements in small muscle groups that equal healthy gains.  It will be over my lunch hour and in downtown wamego, so I have no excuses.  My biggest complaint with local classes has been there is too much cardio involved, and I don't need cardio, I get that with running.  This is going to be perfect for me!

2.  Nutrition.  Not sure what this is going to look like, but I am miserable, I look horrible in pictures, am destroying my joints with the extra weight, and have seen others have success with myriad of programs out there, just can't get the motivation to join.  I am not wanting to spend a ton of money or starve myself, so I am just not sure which way to go.  I know there is a way to cut things out like beer and sweets, as I have been over indulging for sure. I am writing this down now so I can revisit it and see where I am at throughout the year.  One of my good friends has been going to a weight loss doctor, which is covered by her insurance and taking some oral medications which has helped her a ton.  I may see if that would be of help to me as well, as long as it doesn't interfere with my running and the carbs I use to fuel.  

3.  Keep working on my mental health.  I started back into therapy and while it's been a wild ride thus far and I am not sure I am with the therapist I am meant to be with (I think we would make awesome friends, just not sure the professional side is where it needs to be), I am also not sure I want to start over with this journey with someone new, so kind of stuck.   I think therapy is vital for me in navigating a world where I struggle with conflict, friendships, and past trauma.  I also want to be very much a part of what my kiddo does via boards and volunteering, and unfortunately in this day and time, youth sports is a hot bed for conflict.  I am reading and going to be taking some conflict resolution classes to learn how to keep escalation from happening, and how to deal with truly difficult people.  I know some people will never change, but I can work on me as much as possible.  

4.  Continue to surround myself with amazing women that lift me up and keep me honest.  I have in the past year surrounded myself with an amazing tribe of football moms, racing moms, my mommy, and my BRFs and THEY have truly been the reason that I have kept my sanity.

2023 Races:

I know, I know, I have said time and time again that I was done signing up for races.  That I was just enjoying running for fun.  That I didn't want to have to abide by a training plan.  Whelp, thanks to a great black Friday deal, both of my BRFs and I are all signed up for the timed race at the Miola Madness timed run.  In fact my mom may come out as well as my whole family to crew us since it's a timed/looped race.  Who knows what I will accomplish in 12 hours.  Maybe 40 miles?  Maybe more? I guess let's see how training goes and how my body reacts.  

That is all I am committing to in the new year.  We are going to hit it pretty hard racing wise this year and maybe travel some and we are playing football again this year, which reeks havoc on fall racing.  I am also helping with many wrestling tournaments the beginning of this year.  These next few years are all about my kiddo, and I am so excited to see what he does this year.  Plus, not sure where this new found love of singing is going to lead us, but hoping maybe some theater or show choir is in his future because I think he would love it. This is the season of life I am in and I am okay with that.    

There we have it!  I am proud of what I got accomplished even if it is less than I have in years.  Here's to an amazing 2023 and whatever adventures it brings!