The Return... again!

Well, Hello There!

How the HECK are you?!

Me? I'm feeling FABULOUS!

It's been over 2 years since I last wrote here..that's a really scary thought. But I've recently been feeling really motivated to share my life so I figured, "Why the heck not?"

A quick recap, because My life and my goals have changed DRAMATICALLY since I last posted.

1. I broke up with Tyler. 
I finally saw through all the horrible and emotionally abusive bull shit that I was dragging myself through in that relationship and decided to call it quits in September of 2015. It was not a very easy decision by any means necessary, but it was the best decision for me. There were a lot of other things that went on at that time, but I'm not going to go into it here.

I will say though, that I am REALLY glad that I made that decision for myself.

2. I am forehead deep in a very loving relationship.
When I ended things with Tyler there was no longer any internal confusion about what I wanted in a relationship and what I felt I deserved to have in my life. I was very fortunate that all of it came to me almost immediately in my current partner, Adam. Adam and I have known each other for approximately 8 years through my work at Chili's. We reconnected at the end of mine and Tyler's relationship and it has been the best thing to ever happen to me.

I did a lot of shaming myself for how quickly I got into this relationship, but through the process I realized that I was over my previous relationship almost 3 years prior to the break up. I'm also the happiest (and healthiest) I've been in the past decade. We live together in Los Angeles, we have an adorable dog ( a Shih tzu named Plissken)  and we're both into running and being healthy (most of the time) and most importantly EACH OTHER!

3. My Mom passed away in October 2016.
This has been the toughest of my changes. My mom and I were best friends since I was a little girl. There isn't a minute that goes by that my heart doesn't ache for her. But, my mom was diagnosed with stage 3 Ovarian Cancer while I was in Grad School (October 2012) and she fought a really hard and debilitating battle for those 4 years and 14 days. While I'm definitely grieving (and learning how to grieve) I am also at peace knowing she is no longer in pain or having to go through chemo's or surgeries and being just plain miserable.

4. I suffered from my first real running injury (and lived to tell about it)!
In October/November of 2015 I started training for what I thought would be my triumphant return to the LA Marathon. I was getting into the best shape of my life (because I was compensating while going through my break up) and went a little too hard with the squats/lunges one day and pulled a muscle in my right groin. Just typing about it makes my thigh hurt.

I WAS DEVASTATED to say the least. I took my last run on December 24th, 2015 and didn't lace up again until April 1st. It was the worst 3 months of my life. I was an emotional wreck, I felt like a beached whale and nothing I was doing was helping (and I did a lot). I turned to walking, swimming and yoga and it kept most of my demons at bay... but it just wasn't running.

Since then my whole last year has been a really slow progression to getting back to where I was at. I was really afraid of getting reinjured again so I took my time and focused a lot on healing myself in the moment and learning how to prevent future issues.

5. I decided to start training and racing smarter. 
My last half marathon was in October of 2015. I PR'd in under an hour and 45 minutes (say what!) and it was the greatest feeling ever. As you can tell, I was injured shortly there after and havent decided to race.... UNTIL NOW!

I am currently registered for The Wine County Runs Half Marathon in Paso Robles California. I am hoping to run in under 1:45 again, but we'll see how this goes. Adam will be doing his first race (the 5k) so I'm extra excited about this event.

If I perform well at this event I will be returning to the Shoreline Half Marathon in Ventura, California in July the weekend of my 31st Birthday. I promised myself that if i stayed healthy and smart for both of these races that I could then train for the Long Beach Marathon in Long Beach, California on October 8th. The Ultimate goal is to have those 3 races go well so that I can run LA Marathon in the spring of 2018

These seem like slightly lofty goals, but I feel extremely ready for them. My biggest issue right now is trying to just take it one day at a time and not think of it as a "Year Long Ordeal". I wont be registering for any races until I have completed the one previous to it so as not to put any undue pressure on myself.

As I've been getting back to my core "base" training I've been feeling the need to get out and speak about it. I'm not sure if the blog will go to a daily or weekly thing, but I'm thinking it will be a "When I feel like it" sorta gig. I may also be adding a daily Vlog (A Video Blog) component to this, so keep an eye out! I'm still messing around with the idea of recording myself and how it would actually work... but I'm liking the idea more and more each day.

I'm sure there's like 1 million other things that have happened in the past 2 years, but these seem to be the most important and the most life changing. Please stay tuned for my training highs and lows, my tips and treats and all the fun randomness that is me.


Christina