New Year, New Goals

It is officially 2017! Looking back at the past year, a lot has happened in my fitness and running life. Here’s a look at 2016 by the numbers.

  1. I ran 13 races this year.
  2. Seven of my 13 races were races I did for the first time.
  3. I ran races in a total of 4 different states (Ohio, California, Louisiana, and North Carolina)
  4. I ran 3 half marathons, bringing up my total to 5.
  5. I was unsuccessful at PR’ing this year, so that number is a 0.
  6. I played my first season of professional women’s football.
  7. I got to be in 2 games for a total of 7 plays. I also had my first tackle during a game.
  8. I only had one injury during football (tore my UCL in my elbow). I was able to avoid having surgery because I am left handed and I tore it in my right.

Looking at these numbers, there is a lot that I know I can work on. 2017 is the year of my first full marathon. I will be running the Seattle Rock n Roll Marathon in June. Because my training for that is going to be very time consuming, I’ve decided (after much debate with myself) that I’m stepping away from football for the season to focus my effort on running. Training starts in February and I’m very excited!

Other goals for 2017:

  1. Start a Master’s program.
  2. Read 25 books.
  3. Update my website weekly.
  4. Spend more time with my Grandma.

New Fitness Adventures!

With training being my real main focus the past few weeks, I haven’t had time to tell you guys I have begun two new fitness adventures! These are both things that I have wanted to try and be a part of for a long time and the time has finally come for me to pursue them.

First up, the Cleveland Fusion. Never heard of them? The Cleveland Fusion is Cleveland’s women’s tackle football team. Real Women. Real Football. They are a part of the Women’s Football Alliance,  a league that crosses over the entire country and has 40 teams in it. Cleveland iscleveland-fusion-logo-225 currently ranked fifth in the nation, having 10 All-American players last season. Our home stadium is in Maple Heights and the season begin in April. I’m pretty pumped about it.

There are probably some of you who are aware that I have zero football playing experience but experience is not a requirement for making the team. We have not yet begun to have legitimate practices but we have started conditioning (which I love) and I’ve gotten a chance to meet some of the players. They have all told me that I’m going to have a good time this season and they seem really supportive and want to help me figure all this out. Go Fusion!

My second fitness adventure is a bit of a piggy-back on the football team. Currently for conditioning, we meet at a Crossfit gym in Bedford Heights. That’s a bit of a haul for me to do three times a week so I only trek out there on Monday’s. I still want to be working out and lifting weights, something I have never had much interest in, but I didn’t know where to do that. I usually just lifted by myself at the Y but I didn’t feel challenged necessarily and I didn’t have the motivation to do it myself. After telling my assistant principal about making the team, he told me I should look into going to the Crossfit gym he goes to  (not a new topic of conversation for us). I finally gave in and checked it out, thinking that it would be easier for me to get to it than Bedford.TheBarCrossFitLogoFNLblack.png

I’ve only been to one class really, along with one 1 on 1 Athlete Development session but I already love it. The people there are super cool and very nice. They just want to help you and teach you how to do things correctly. It’s been great. Everything can be modified to your needs and your strength so even with my shoulder being iffy sometimes, I can still feel like I’m working hard and making progress.

I’m super excited about both of these fitness adventures. Just another way I can continue being an athlete in my own eyes.