Happy new year! It’s time to kick off 2019 here in this space – it’s been too long!

It’s no secret that 2018 was a year of change for me. I posted this at the start of 2018:

And wow, it certainly was. I never could have predicted all that 2018 would throw at me.

As I’ve mentioned, life is a series of phases and changes and I’ve been through a lot of them. Not just in 2018, but in the past few years. Just off the top of my head…

I’ve made a career transition and am now self-employed.

I’ve gotten divorced.

I’ve navigated the world of dating in my 40s, which is very different from when I was in my 20s (no social media or dating apps back then!).

I’ve become an IRONMAN,

I’ve shepherded my oldest into middle school and my youngest into elementary school.

I’ve had some interesting travels.

I’ve completed the 6-year era of being an “au pair mom”, and no longer have a young adult living with me.

I’ve gained new and valuable friendships.

And sadly, my beloved Great Dane Daisy passed away a few weeks ago, right in the last few days of 2018.

She was a good, sweet dog, and she lived until a couple weeks shy of her 11th birthday. It’s a big change to be missing her from my life since I have not lived without a dog (actually, without a Great Dane!) since perhaps 2003.

So, yes. It’s been a lot of change these past few years, but I have embraced it. I love how live evolves, and how every evolution brings with it new experiences, learning opportunities, and people. And 2018 in particular brought the most change.

In the fitness, running, and triathlon area of my life, 2018 was a year of misses that turned into learning opportunities. It was not a success in terms of completed races, PRs and goals crushed.

I guess I was due for a year like this, where things just fell flat.

I trained for an IRONMAN that I did not do. I think I underestimated how my career transition, parenting duties, and Medical issues would throw me for a loop with regard to training.

I bought a brand new bike, which was irreparably damaged on a flight to Colorado the day I picked it up. What an ordeal… but again, I learned a lot and I’ve been writing up bike travel tips and airline policy info that I’ll put into a fresh blog post. But wow, did I learn to love biking last year! Aside from times like this:

I was plagued by Medical Issues – one in particular was nerve compression in my wrists from cycling long distances caused me to lose use of my hands for weeks at a time. It’s really hard to do anything when you can’t use your hands – I couldn’t hold a fork, write with a pen, button my own pants – not a good situation.

I had the first of three procedures due to a leaky/failed vein in my calf. The pain and discomfort was getting to be too much.

In addition to ongoing medical things, I attempted half IRONMAN #9 in Indian Wells, California last month, and ended up in the medical tent after contracting SIPE (pulmonary edema) during the cold swim. It was scary and traumatic and I could barely make it through the swim due to the fluid building up in my lungs. But I’m alive. I learned a lot I’ll share all this info in an upcoming post.

Looking back at the year, what went well were the smaller moments. While I didn’t have a summer vacation with my kids because I was in the midst of a career shift, overall I now have way more time with my kids than I ever did before.

We have those daily moments around the dinner table, which is a cool change since I was almost never being home for dinner in my past life. My kids have their mother present in a more substantial way. And when you only have your kids 50% of the time, it makes a huge difference.

So what’s in store for 2019?

If I’ve learned anything this year, it’s that when you head into a near year, you absolutely can’t predict what wonderful things, nor what challenges, will be a part of your life.

My plan for 2019 is:

To grab hold of consistency in training.

To work hard at my business.

To deepen friendships and relationships.

To get back to the fitness and body that I feel best with. This is not a weight goal, this is not a race goal. This is a life goal.

To treasure the moments in life that are precious.

To share and connect others, and to learn from them.

To experience new things, to learn new things, and to really embrace and enjoy life.

One change I didn’t intend was to slowly fade out from this space, and the outlet that it provided. I miss writing. I miss the blogging community I had developed. Writing here motivated me towards my goals, provided some accountability and motivation in a way that I haven’t experienced in other ways, and also gave me a space to share the successes, challenges, things I’ve learned, and my personal journey. So I plan to be writing regularly in 2019 again.

Cheers to 2019. I’m excited to share it with all of you!

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