Goals for 2016
Racing Goals
This is a qualifier for the World Team. Depending on your rank in age group, you qualify for the World Team, which would be really neat. Unfortunately, USA Triathlon makes you pay your own way to World Championships and it is a hefty price, so the goal here is be a World Team Qualifier. After that, we will just see what happens.
Maryland Ironman 2016
This really seems like an obvious goal since that's the new focus of this blog. My support team for this goal is HUGE. My family, friends, and Maryland 2016 Facebook group will be a huge motivator for this goal. I never thought I would have so much support for this. I also have doubters for this particular goal (Yes, I know who you are!) and I want to thank this important group of people too. You are a part of my success, believe it or not. On the days I wake up and just want to hit the snooze button (or just knock the alarm into next Tuesday) I will think about how you want to see me fail. Jumping back to the positive people - I appreciate your continued support. I hope to be able to bring a team of people up to Maryland with me for my October 1st race day! I can't tell you how excited I am about this! This goal will require some other sub goals (increasing speed in the water, on the bike, and on the run) but it's too much to outline here. Plus, do you really care??
Health Goal

This is something I started working on in 2015 and will continue into next year. In April of this year I gave up meat. Before that, the only meat I was eating was chicken, turkey, and occasionally pork. Something happened to me this year that made me say, "Okay, I'm done!" I like watching health documentaries, and I have several friends who are either vegetarian or vegan (I'm talking to YOU Charlotte and Stephanie!) and they inspired me to take the next step towards a less cruel diet. My goal for 2016 is to remove dairy from my diet by the end of the year. Just like anything else, slow change makes a permanent change. For me (at least) I have to take things away slowly so I don't really notice it. The hardest thing for me to give up was buffalo chicken and I will admit that I had a craving for it for a while. I realized at some point that what I was craving was the buffalo sauce! Well hell, I can put that on anything! I have watched other documentaries that mention that people don't really crave meat. What they crave is the flavor additives that we put on it. Most people would not crave meat if it was just boiled and no seasonings or other flavors were added. It makes total sense to me and helped me to break the habit. I have this weird 6th sense when I am at the grocery store. This is where you will think I am insane . . . When I walk past the meat section of the grocery store, I don't see slabs of meat. I see animals crawling out of the bins. Large cows and pigs screaming for help. I see the slaughter process. I see blood and I hear squeals. It is the weirdest sensation, but it happens every time. So you ask why I gave up meat? There is your answer.
Relationship Goals

Too often, I have expectations where I think things should look a certain way. I am 33 years old and have learned in my many years of dating, that each relationship, be it romantic or just simply a friendship, teaches us something different. I have found myself thinking twice in my life that I would marry the person I was with but that never happened. I am not sad because of this. Those relationships taught me more about myself than I could have learned alone. I look around and see people in relationships and sometimes wonder, "Why not me?" Then I realized something. Some of us are just too independent to be able to stay in a romantic relationship. That doesn't mean anything is wrong with me. It just means that I am able to stand on my own two feet. I have supportive friends who will stand by me when I need support. The next year will be about getting myself ready for Ironman which will I benefit from FRIENDS for than trying to balance the training with a relationship. It is a common phrase in the Ironman world that if your relationship doesn't fall apart, then you must not have trained hard enough. I laugh at this at first and then go, "My last relationship didn't survive a Half Ironman cycle." Although in all honestly, things fell apart not because of training.
Education Goal
I have a habit of starting to read a book and (SHOCKER) not finishing it. This is actually for various reasons. Reading makes me very tired. As a child, I was a struggling reader and didn't enjoy it at all. My sister was the reading wizard and both my brother and I were left with the "I hate to read" gene. I have discovered that the type of books I like the most are athlete documentaries. At the same time, it took me several months to finish my Michael Phelps book. I think this is partly because I have a lot of responsibilities so when it comes to prioritizing things, these are often the things that get bumped. I put "read more" as an education goal because reading makes you more well rounded. . So I'm told. . .
Financial Goal
Other Goals

They say tattoos are addictive. THEY are correct. I got one in July, one in October, and one in December. John says I have the Tattoo Bug. He is right. . . Brian says I am providing him job security. He is right. I recently starting making deals with myself like "Every 10 pounds lost will get me new art." This means that I could potentially get 3 more tattoos before reaching my goal weight. That is motivation!
For now, that is where things stand. I plan to check this post through out the year and keep track of my progress towards these goals.