Now that the kids are back to school, it’s time to open up the new planner for 2025 and get back to it!! It’s been fun to start vision casting for the coming year, thinking of some of the smaller goals I want to accomplish, writing down our family trips and special dates, and really starting with a clean slate.

 

2024 was THE YEAR of growth for me physically, so I thought I’d spend today’s newsletter sharing a little bit about what worked, what was super hard, and what I learned after a year of running daily!

3.1 miles no matter what - whether I was traveling, whether it was hot or cold or snowy or rainy, whether we were at baseball tournaments for 12 hours a day, whether I wasn’t feeling 100%, it didn’t matter - I committed to doing it anyway.

The first few weeks {maybe even the first 2 full months} were really hard. We were gone a ton in January and February last year so not only was I away from my routine at home, but trying to navigate this challenge as a beginner runner was tough {especially on the travel days LOL}. The miles were slow. I felt gassed. I wondered how people could ever do this for fun.

 

Then the winter months turned into spring in Colorado and although we still had lots of snow, I started venturing outdoors for a few of my runs. The fresh air felt nice, I wasn’t concerned with pace, just enjoying moving my body on the trails. I think March & April were turning points in this challenge because I decided then that if I was REALLY going to do this, I was going to go ALL IN. 

By the time summer hit, I was in full swing with my daily challenge but gosh the months of June and July were HARDDDDDD. I traveled every single week for weeks on end - for work trips & baseball tournaments - and those early morning hotel gym sessions after long days and late nights were tough. Every night I would lay out my clothes for the next day, make sure my playlist was ready, and even when I wanted to snooze my alarm clock I just rolled out of bed & got ready in the dark; trying not to wake up my family in the hotel rooms while I’d sneak down to the gym to lift and run before the day began.

Then this past fall I was home more, and even though football season is LONG for everyone hahaha, it helped that I wasn’t traveling as much. Back in September I joined a sprinting group and we sprinted together 2x a week - every week - so I could keep my endurance and challenge myself to run my 5K doing sprint intervals throughout the rest of the year!! It has been so much fun and we are still sprinting together in 2025!!!

So much so, that I decided toward the later part of 2024 that I wanted to start working on building more mileage! I committed to another 2 months of 10K training to close out the year, and was so proud to say I could comfortably run 6-7 miles without stopping and actually ENJOY it!!

I spent an entire year getting outside of my comfort zone every day, training like an athlete in terms of my hydration & nutrition, prioritizing my weightlifting sessions on top of my daily running, tried my best to get 6-7 hours of sleep each night, and prayed a lot that my mind and body would carry me through to the end.

I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to adequately express the growth I sustained and the discipline I nurtured this past year, but I will never forget how proud I was of myself for crossing the finish line day after day for 366 straight days.

The first few days of January were WEIRD not running. But I am taking this month to let my body rest, since I didn’t give myself an actual rest day all year. Focusing on mobility, stretching, recovery, and slowing down - giving my body and mind what they need.

A year long goal like this requires commitment from DAY 1. Not just when things are fresh and new, but when things get HARD and you have to really dig deep to remember your why. Every single day was a day to recommit to my goal, and I never let the hard days win.

I do plan to continue running, but don’t have any set goals or mileage right now. I just want to be able to run for 30 minutes without worrying about that 3.1 or to just do some shorter or longer runs a few times a week!

It was really difficult for me to keep the weight on this past year, in fact I lost 15 pounds in 2024 {which I didn’t realize until I went to the Dr in December and she compared it to the previous December LOL} - so I’m excited to put on a few pounds again and get back some of the gains in my muscle that were just hard to maintain even with daily lifting.

Finally, I’ll just say that I learned SO much about myself from these daily runs. I learned I am so capable, that our bodies are STRONG, that our mind is the muscle you have to train the hardest, and that holding yourself accountable & doing what you say you’re going to do is truly the best feeling in the world.

No matter if you started 2025 with BIG goals, or if you’re like me and choosing a slower start to the year, I wish you health & happiness & peace. Let’s make our future selves proud.