2015 In 2015?!?!? Oh, Yes ...

I'll be among many to wish it to you with a little help from Snoopy's Facebook page ...

In a miracle among miracles, I actually stayed up to ring in the New Year at midnight with the rest of the Crew!! I almost didn't make it as I felt myself nodding off at 11:54 p.m.!! I fought myself awake, though ... nothing like making it that long and not crossing the finish line, huh?!? Besides, we had party poppers to pull, and I wasn't going to miss out on that (which I did wrong and ended up having my confetti explode in my hand and not sail into the room!)! We celebrated with our traditional appetizer dinner while watching Happy New Year, Charlie Brown and playing games. It's simple and wonderful, and I continue my reign as the queen of the game Taboo ...!

Okay. Down to some business. I have found in the past couple of years that setting a specific mileage goal to shoot for during a calendar year has been immensely motivating, so, in that regard, this year will follow suit. However, I'm changing it up in two ways ...

FIRST! While retaining a specific mileage goal for running, I am adding an overall intentional movement goal in the forms of walking and biking. Intentional movement for my purposes means 'done for exercise'. 2015 running goal: 900 miles. Overall movement goal: 1250 miles.

I honestly have no idea what '1250' looks like or really means in this sense as I've never tracked other miles besides running., so I'm starting there. That is the exact reason I chose that number!

SECOND! Okay, so the Run the Edge Facebook page comes through my feed. About a week ago, I saw them announce their ' Run 2,015 in 2015' challenge. Yes, that means 2,105 miles in the year. I was all, "Hell no," and ignored it completely. But, it keeps coming through my feed, so I keep seeing it and thinking about it. And, then I noticed it said you can accomplish it by yourself (um, NO), with a partner or a team of three. THEN I thought about how Aaron has been taking Elly out for walks in the morning, and it all came together ...

The Team of Three:


How can we lose in matching Diet Coke shirts and the cutest
pound hound ever?!

Aaron readily agreed to take on the mileage challenge assuming two conditions: That his biking counts (check!) and Elly's miles count, too (double check!). Those were easy, and we're all in! So, they're signed on for 765 of the miles ... whee!!

Aaron and Pit Crew #3 like to go to the gym together, and they like to race each other on the track (speed walker vs. runner, respectively). I told him that counts, too. Aaron was like, "Um, that's hardly anything," and I said, "Um, that's moving to exercise," and he was all, "Yeah, but, it's, like, three tenths of a mile," and I was all, "I don't get a medal at Mile 13 ..."

Yes, indeed, it. all. counts!

I must note our plan is an amendment to the official program from Run the Edge as theirs is exclusive to running. If you're interested in their program, check it out here: http://www.runtheedge.com/2014/12/run-2015-in-2015-challenge/ I wanted to share their link because, after all, their program was the inspiration for what we redeveloped for ourselves. Their program wasn't going to work for me because there's not a chance I'm running that many miles in a year, and Aaron isn't medically allowed to run given his knee cartilage transplant. And, besides, Elly likes to play, too, so we needed her in on it! As all of the New Year exercise programs and suggestions start to bombard us, take just a sec to step back and see if there's just a little something in there that you can extract and make work for you your way! It's totally easy to write it all off and say NO (see above notation about my first reaction to the 2,105 in 2015 program!), but you might find a little gem of an idea in there that you fall in love with!

Aaron and Elly started us off today with a walk while I ... you guessed it ... slept in!! (Yay, me!) I'll give updates at the first of each month ... by the first of February, we should have a team name, too! I'm pretty stoked about mixing the year up in this way!

It is now time to go defend my Taboo title while continuing to digest the holiday cuisine that has made me wonder if I'm ever going to be able to run another step at all! So good ... so done!!

Here's to a healthy, happy 2015!! Let's go do this!!!