"GOOAAAAAALLLLLLL!" (in my EXTREMELY excited soccer announcer voice)

**WARNING: This post has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with soccer!** :)

ok...almost nothing :)

I have always been a very goal-oriented person, I love encouraging others to set goals and work towards them and I especially love the feeling I get when I reach a goal. Trouble is, I tend to get waaaaay to busy and distracted to remember to even SET a goal to begin with!

Thankfully, I joined an accountability group on FB and we're publicly announcing our goals, and then checking back in daily to update our progress. I love it! It's so much fun to see others working on their goals and it also gives me some good ideas for my own set of goals!

In my 'fitness life' I have been really making progress, thanks in large part to this whole goal setting thing. Unfortunately, I really fell off in a ton of other areas :( One that really bothered me, was the fact that I didn't even know my oldest had a Math test on Thursday, meaning we didn't do ANYTHING to prepare! As a teacher myself, I cringed at the thought of being "that" parent - so wrapped up in other things that I let his academics slide........(thanfully, Cam did a WONDERFUL job on the test and made a 95% - whew! BUT lesson definitely learned!)

So.... in addition to fitness goals, I am also going to work on a set of personal goals, family-related goals, and professional goals. Every school year I help my students set specific, measurable and attainable goals and this year, I am doing it too!

It's not the beginning of the school year or the calendar year, but sometimes, you just need to stop, refocus and set some new goals, so here goes....... (I'll be back with some super cute version of my goals in a few days, after I've set them and created it...)

AM Yoga

I was just reading a few other running/life blogs and a few of them mentioned early am running sessions. I WISH I could do that! This isn't the kind of "I wish..., but I don't want to do the work" kind of wishes. I live in the middle of the wilderness. If I ran in the am before sunrise, or the pm after sunset, I might get eaten. No joke. We have coyotes & panthers & bears...(oh my!)

...and maybe even flying monkeys! I am NOT prepared to deal with that!

So I have decided to do my Yoga Meltdown every morning. I just decided this. Right now. It's amazing how inspiration comes out of the most random places! I was going to write about how I didn't get to do ANY yoga this week and I only got to run once thanks to parent-teacher conferences, meetings and soccer practice. But first I was going to confess my jealousy of others' ability to am run.... and somehow, the two thoughts collided and I thought - Aha! AM yoga! YESSSSSSS!!!!

It's perfect! It's one of those ideas that I'm so excited to try that I want to hurry up and have a Monday morning so that I can do it!! (....and then I slap myself and remember how much I LOOOOOOOve my weekends and want to enjoy EVERY minute....)

Usually my great ideas come in the shower or on long runs....and then I forget them... but I've put this one into writing so it WILL happen! 

Confession: I love the following picture b/c this is what I imagine happening even though I would NEVER actually do something like that to someone who got in my way.... well, not literally, I would just GO AROUND them in the nicest way possible....

;)

I'm going to try my long run tomorrow, so I'll do my yoga later. Which brings me to another painful topic. My long run. It hasn't been able to actually grow into something 'long'. I've had to come home only getting 5-6 miles for the last 3 weeks. I'm not being hard on myself, saying that it isn't long because other people have 20+ mile long runs. No, this isn't 'long' for me, because I have done 5 mile tempo runs and progression runs. So my long run should be able to be longer than that right? It's the opposite hip, my left one now, that has started flaring up. I thought I was doing enough strength training, but I guess not..... so I'm just going to hang out around that 5 mile mark until I can go further without pain. I DO NOT want to have to take another month off!

Do you sleep in as late as possible in the AM or are you an early riser? What do you use that time for?

What hazards do you face where you run? How do you deal with them?

When I am able to run on the country roads around my house, I ALWAYS take my cell phone and wear bright, reflective clothing. My dad thinks I should also strap on a hand-gun...

Confession....

I love crossing things off of a 'To-Do List' - actually, I even love looking at a list with things crossed off of it! Sometimes, when I do something that wasn't on my list, I add it JUST so I can cross it off. BAM! :)