Happy New Year!

Most of the world celebrates the new year on January 1st. For me, my new year begins on January 12th. My birthday is January 11th so my "birthday season" starts with Thanksgiving and rolls right on through January 11th. Sometimes, if I am not in a mood to stop the holiday eating just yet feeling particularly festive, I carry it right on through MLK's birthday which as a bank employee is yet another day off for me. Cry me a river. Let's just say this year, I am ready to shed the stress, drama, unfinished plans and cancelled race dates that became 2009 and move on with a fantastic new year! Either that or I stepped on the scale this morning and was horrified at the number that appeared. Perhaps it was a combination of them both some of which can be attributed to the strawberry cake with strawberry buttercream icing that I made for myself for my birthday. Oh my it was good.

This year, the focus will be on living clean and simple. One of my biggest problems in life is that I try to do way too much. I have a problem with saying no to people (including myself) and end up either doing things I never really wanted to in the first place or trying to stick to training plans that are just completely unrealistic and I end up getting frustrated and don't enjoy it. My newly cleaned calendar will consist of only 3 races this year. THREE. Hard to believe but it is tough love baby. Active.com you can send me all the enticing emails you want to sign up for your races but you will not entice me. My races have been chosen and I am sticking to my guns. Oh wait. Make that four races... I do love that Thanksgiving Half. OK, 4 races this year. FOUR.

My big goal for the year will be to just get back into the enjoyment of running. Not that I DON'T enjoy it now, I guess that is misleading but after sticking to so many training schedules over the past 2 years it started to become more of a 'have to' instead of a 'want to'. To start the year off right with running just for fun, I plan to run 11 miles of enjoyment tomorrow on my birthday. My own 11 on the 11th. The only big event I am training for next year will be the Goofy Challenge in January of 2011. Registration opens tomorrow at noon so that will be my birthday gift to myself. I am over the top with anticipation to sign up. I hope I feel the same when the race rolls around!

My new clean and simple living plan also extends outside of my exercise life and into my home. I am planning to spend at least a few hours tomorrow ridding myself of excess. I have so many things that I have not used in years. Clothes, household goods, you name it. I am one of those people that keeps things just in case. You never know when you might need that Freshman Composition book or those clothes from 1992. I know... I am hoping the purging will feel very freeing as opposed to very traumatic. I know hubby will be beside himself with glee once I get rid of it all. Wish me luck. :)